All Blacks face Twitter ban during upcoming 2011 Rugby World Cup
All Blacks’ New Zealand squad has been banned from communicating on social networking sites such as Twitter during the upcoming 2011 Rugby World Cup because this has been acknowledged as a major distraction for the team.
The New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) has deemed Twitter as a source of diversion for the players and believes its use will result in the lack of focus, which cannot be compromised at any cost. The NZRU thinks that the undivided attention of the players is
foremost while playing a major sporting event like the World Cup.
The 2011 Rugby World Cup will be the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The current host country was decided after a meeting of the International Rugby Board (IRB) on November 17, 2005. New Zealand
won the bid to host the event by beating out Japan and South Africa. This event is scheduled to be played over the weekend starting from September 9 and will be winding up on October 23.
Graham Henry, New Zealand Rugby Union coach and head coach of the country's national All Blacks team, believes that if his squad members continue to tweet, they will adversely affect their performance during Rugby World Cup 2011. He stated, "We haven't had
a policy up till now, we've just asked them to make good decisions about that."
It has also been stated by the All Blacks manager, Darren Shand, that the New Zealand squad members have already received a warning against using Facebook pages, blogging and writing newspaper columns during the tournament. This action is taken in order
to keep the players focused on their job which is the prime requirement of the Rugby World Cup. However, he further added, "We won't be shutting ourselves away from the world."
It has been announced that fans may receive instant updates by following feeds on the All Blacks’ official web page and they will not need to check up on the twitter feeds of athletes for the latest news. Many members of All Blacks are regular Twitter users
including scrum-half Piri Weepu and fullback and wing Cory Jane. Both player have a large number of fans and Jane boasts a huge list with over 14,000 followers. Jane’s attempt to update his fan page in 2009 caused friction between the player and the board.
In order to avoid other similar situations the ban has been imposed on all players.
All Blacks do not wish to jeopardise their performance at the cost of pleasing their followers through tweets. Fans hope that the ban will help their team finally win a World Cup this year at home.
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