Andrew Bishop in trouble with the law.....

Ospreys centre Andrew Bishop has been charged with common assault after an incident in Cardiff city centre on Monday morning, the Ospreys have announced that it would be inapropriate to make any comments at this moment in time.

So make of that what you will, when do these boys ever learn.

Early hours of Monday morning according to BBC Wales News! I wonder if drink had something to do with the incident!

Bishop is in court next month, if he was at fault I hope the Ospreys set an example to demomstrate his behaviour is not acceptable and bad for the image of the game in Wales.

Jokes and wums aside what is it about the Welsh rugby players and getting into so much trouble.

Andy Powell, Mike Phillips, Gavin Henson, Ceri Sweeney, Tom James, Andrew Bishop

Im not exactly delving into the annals of history to come up with those examples - this is all very recent.

What do you suppose it is?

red_stag wrote:Jokes and wums aside what is it about the Welsh rugby players and getting into so much trouble.

Andy Powell, Mike Phillips, Gavin Henson, Ceri Sweeney, Tom James, Andrew Bishop

Im not exactly delving into the annals of history to come up with those examples - this is all very recent.

What do you suppose it is?

I suppose it is the goldfish bowl that is Wales when it comes to rugby, at the end of the day, these are just local boys who have been given massive exposure, there will always be some spitefull bar steward who will be jelous of it, but at the end of day, what was he doing there at that time, he should realise his responsabilities as well.

Stag, probably just because its the national sport over there so the players are subjected to more scrutiny than fellow rugby players in other countries.

I'd hazard a guess the Welsh boys don't get up to anything worse than the English players, it's just that their gossip rags are looking for them to slip up whereas ours are after the Premier League footballers instead.

We saw after the England World Cup 'scandal' (feel free to insert 'massive over reaction') a couple of English players being pulled up by the papers while it was fashionable - Care, Armitage etc.

That's my best guess anyway.

Agree with the two above posts. Welsh rugby is like a bloody goldfish bowl sometimes. No wonder half of those guys Stag listed have left the country to play elsewhere. Also, we tend to hear more about Welsh and English players more than any other countries generally anyway. That's the local sports media for you.

I'm disappointed that Bishop's got in bother, I didn't think he was the type but I'm not going judge. I wasn't there, so I can't comment. He who is without sin casts the first stone and all that...

glamorganalun wrote:Early hours of Monday morning according to BBC Wales News! I wonder if drink had something to do with the incident!

Bishop is in court next month, if he was at fault I hope the Ospreys set an example to demomstrate his behaviour is not acceptable and bad for the image of the game in Wales.

They were pretty tough on Phillips last season after his bad taste tweeting so i imagine if guilty they will throw the book at him.

Also I'd hazzard that in England cities like London (for the teams who play close enough to it for players to live/go out there), Manchester, and Birmingham as well as Glasgow and Edinburgh for Scots players and Dublin (for Leinster) are all pretty big cities with football/GAA dwarfing rugby in terms of interest (for the press as well in terms of football in England/Scotland). While many Welsh rugby players either live or go out frequently in Cardiff, which is a small city with only 3 or 4 streets with nightclubs on it - Swansea has 2 streets really (Wind St, Kingsway, though you could cont Mumbles as well), these players are well known in Wales and in these cities, even among football/non-rugby fans because of their photos being spread across the back pages of the Welsh local newspapers every week (the Western Fail is essentially a Cardiff local paper).

So I imagine they'd be recognised very quickly, even in the 'big' city of Cardiff, and I'd imagine they'd get quite a bit of aggro from some drunk people - especially with some women throwing themselves at the players.

It all adds to the goldfish bowl, especially as they'd probably be drinking in the same places as the Western Fail journalists.

Cari wrote:
I'm disappointed that Bishop's got in bother, I didn't think he was the type but I'm not going judge.

I am surprised at him too. He's always seemed very professional.

maestegmafia wrote:

glamorganalun wrote:Early hours of Monday morning according to BBC Wales News! I wonder if drink had something to do with the incident!

Bishop is in court next month, if he was at fault I hope the Ospreys set an example to demomstrate his behaviour is not acceptable and bad for the image of the game in Wales.

They were pretty tough on Phillips last season after his bad taste tweeting so i imagine if guilty they will throw the book at him.

What was Phillips' "bad taste tweeting"? Was this connected to the Mcdonalds incident or something different?

Fuss over nothing at this stage. Bishop probably just threatened to give some chavs a clip 'round the ear for spilling his San Miguel.

Although I agree it is fun to speculate wildly about what he might have done and how this is representative of some sort of diseased sub-culture in Welsh rugby.

Incidents like this occur with every other nationality but it seems to be made overly public in Wales and people jump on the wagon

I think that Priest has got it right, compared to places like London where a player can disappear in the crowd or else go to a club with a VIP area to avoid the public, in Wales the city centres are very compact and the players would be much more vunerable to some idiot trying to impress his mates/girlfriend or wind up a payer from another team (Ospreys player out in Cardiff)....of course that's not to say that converse doesn't go on and some players will give the large one and "don't you know who I am routine".
When I lived in the centre of Leicester it was quite common to see Tigers players and Leicester City footballers in the city centre pubs and restaurants - however the doormen and staff used to be very protective and players were largely left alone, the hassle was more from fans (and females) wanting to talk rather than fight. That said i was in a bar when someone started trying it on with a couple of quite young Tigers players, until a certain Mr M Johnson and a couple of his front row colleagues came over to "assist".

In NZ the players generally manage to wangle name suppression. Initially at least.

Rene Ranger was acquitted of assault last week following a pub incident in 2009 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10827362

Rugby players in NZ and Wales probably face similar challenges in terms of drunken blokes trying to make themselves look tough by squaring up to a star player

And...to put it into some sort of context, the Welsh players' 'scandals' (Powell aside) tend to be of the 'get drunk, get a bit push & shovey in a club' variety.

We are very low-rent compared to Irish players (dive into the crowd and punch a defenceless fan 7 times in the face; accumulate debts with a bookie 3 times bigger than your county's annual GDP; crash your car when blind drunk) and

English players (go absolutely berserk any time you're on NZ soil, from terrorizing hotel maids, to snogging fit birds even if you're married to a princess, to jumping off ferries into the harbour...etc etc)

and the French.

Even Powell would never have got into trouble if the Vale of Glam had offered decent room service.

To make out this is a Welsh thing is immature and ignorant of the actual facts.

Casartelli wrote:
Even Powell would never have got into trouble if the Vale of Glam had offered decent room service.

"Rugby Player drinks beer shocker"...!

maestegmafia wrote:"Rugby Player drinks beer shocker"...!

"Charged with common assault" is a bit different from just drinking beer.

sugarNspikes wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:"Rugby Player drinks beer shocker"...!

"Charged with common assault" is a bit different from just drinking beer.

Proven guilty of it is a bit different mind Squirrel. Don't be so quick to judge till then, as he may yet turn out to be just a beer drinker. Thanks for your typically great contribution to a Welsh thread though.

Just announced on ITV Bishop found guilt of common assault.

He could do a stretch then.

At a hearing at Cardiff Magistrates' Court the 16-times capped international was ordered to pay £465 and £500 compensation after punching Allan Hornsey in the early hours of August 20.

Bishop, 27, of Cadwgan Court, Treorchy, was on a night out with Ospreys teammates, the court heard.


He had drunk five or six pints of beer and several vodka red bulls while at Peppermint Bar and Soda Bar on Mill Lane.

He was seen by a friend of Mr Hornsey sat in a doorway on Mill Lane at about 2.50am with his head slumped against his shoulder.

Friend Arran Harris approached Bishop because he was “concerned for his wellbeing”, defending Stuart Hutton told the court.

He told Bishop to wake before kicking him in the foot.

Bishop then rose to his feet calling Mr Harris to “come here”. Mr Hornsey intervened as a fracas broke out.

Bishop then turned his attention to Mr Hornsey, punching him, cutting his lip and ripping his shirt.

Police were called but Bishop denied he was involved in a fight.

When questioned at the police station, CCTV showed he had been involved – although Bishop claimed he had no recollection of it because he was “intoxicated”.


Lying to the police who turned up after the fight doesn't help his cause - very embarrassing.

CCTV doesn't pick up sounds. I wonder what was really said?

It will be interesting if he gets punished by the Ospreys as he has let them and the sponsors down.

glamorganalun wrote:It will be interesting if he gets punished by the Ospreys as he has let them and the sponsors down.

Is this worse than throwing ice-cubes??

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

glamorganalun wrote:It will be interesting if he gets punished by the Ospreys as he has let them and the sponsors down.

Is this worse than throwing ice-cubes??

It is obviously a slooooow investigation by the Ospreys as they saw fit to select him for the match yesterday.

What more is there to investigate? The court case is over he got drunk punched a man in the early hours, lied to police & changed his story when confronted with the evidence. Then pleaded guilty at court.

Surprised he played yesterday to be honest but it clearly had no effect on his performance. I suspect the Os may not ban him during the HC though

I'm surprised he is playing too. He was very very good last night.

Maybe it's done and dealt with.