Six Nations: Abuse forces Nick De Luca to bow out of Twitter
Nick De Luca was targeted online following his performance for Scotland in Cardiff. Picture: SNS
DISAPPOINTED Scotland rugby international Nick De Luca has been forced to cancel his Twitter account after becoming a target for abuse from a group of bitter fans.
A torrent of online abuse was aimed at the centre in the wake of the Six Nations defeat by Wales at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday.
The postings included insults of a highly personal nature – prompting the player to abandon the social networking site.
At least one Scotland team colleague has aired his fury at the public treatment of De Luca.
And yesterday dozens of disgusted supporters also gave him strong backing via Twitter.
Edinburgh ace De Luca had frustrated fans by being yellow-carded at a crucial stage at the Millennium Stadium. And it was while he was in the sin-bin that the Welsh effectively snuffed out the challenge of the Scots.
Before quitting Twitter, De Luca had been regarded as one of the more entertaining contributors among rugby figures north of the border.
Asked recently why he did not sport any tattoos on his body, De Luca replied: “Because you don’t put a bumper sticker on a Ferrari.”
An Edinburgh spokesman said: “Social media, and Twitter in particular, is a very useful and positive tool for players to engage with the fans, the vast majority of whom are very supportive. We’re sorry Nick felt it necessary to remove himself from Twitter but it’s a personal decision which, given some of the unpleasant and personal comments, is entirely understandable.”
De Luca, who was born in Dumfries and grew up in Lockerbie, recovered from a disappointing debut against France in 2008 to win 31 caps. In last year’s World Cup he spurned a golden opportunity in the crunch match against England when he knocked on a loose ball with the line at his mercy.
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Comments
There are 27 comments to this article
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The Lord
Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 02:42 PMSurprised he kept a hold of his handheld to twitter - he drops everything else. Be in the public eye - be big enough to take crticism from the public particularly those that pay upwards of £50 a shot to watch absolute garbage like him.
inoui
Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 09:01 AMDespicable behaviour from a few misguided idiots......anyway it was the refs decision that was questionable.......through out the match.
JCA REID
Friday, February 17, 2012 at 12:45 PMThere shouldn't be personal attacks on the guy's Twitter. Criticism should only be put forward to the general articles that appear in the Press or letters written to sports editors.
ATG73
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 06:50 PMI'd pick outside centre from: AnsbroEvansHogg and inside centre from: ScottAnsbroDeluca
ATG73
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 06:48 PMI don't think Deluca is out of his depth, he is out of position. He does not and never has looked a natural outside centre. Hes much better used as a 12 to make speculative runs into the opposition defences, rather than a link man to the outside backs which I feel he doesnt have the necessary skill level to offer. He did reasonably well when partnered with Ben Cairns for both club and country; and would have thought Deluca at 12 with AnsbroevansHogg on the outside would have worked well.
theonepriority
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 04:26 PMWhile I have no sympathy for the idiots and cowards who spout venom from behind the safety of annonimity on social media sites the world over, I wonder if the current SRU public relations policy may have added fuel to the fire. In short, the SRU media office encourages and assists players to increase their public profile and accesibility by having personal Facebook pages and Twitter Accounts. While this certainly engenders a closer relationship between fans and the individual players, it can, and in this case has, led to abuse. There is money to be made by both the SRU and the player in personalising the relationships between fans and player, in the form of increased ticket sales, personal advertising promotions, and merchandising, however, these are young guys, and discovering that your personal life has become public property is a harsh lesson to learn. While I genuinely belive that NDL struggles at international level, it is without doubt that he is a committed and proud Scotsman and rugby player, who wants a victory as much as the rest of the team.
Lover of the game
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 03:21 PMNick might not be THE best rugby player in the world, but he is a very good one, as such he does not deserve this kind of treatment. He may have made an illegal tackle BUT the ref was at fault because he let a deliberate knock-on by the Welsh go unpunished and since Scotland were in an excellent try scoring position this should have been a penalty and maybe even a red card. I do hope the iRB investigate the ref as HE spoiled and excellent game.
tomtom678
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 03:15 PMNick yer a nice lad, however I am sorry that were it ends. another point with regards to the players we have produced not being good enough for international rugby.
Selkirk Souter
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 02:02 PMAye, ah remember the auld days when comments were vented to the players in the club rooms efter the game or doon the high street. But in those days it was a case o' telling them they'd had an off day, or had made a slly mistake. The abuse put on these pages, Facebook and twitter is way beyond those of proper rugby supporters. The players are selected to do a job, and a' truly belive they try their hardest to do that within the 80m. God help us all if our working lifes were in a bubble for 8 million people to watch - imagine what comments YOU would get!!
Son of the Dog
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 01:12 PMLet's not call people who resort to this kind of hateful abuse fans. Real fans will have and share strong, deeply felt and at times conflicting views about the team and its performance but stop well short of this kind of disgraceful behaviour and hurtful personal attack. Nick de Luca will be as aware as any of the mistakes he made. However, this goes beyond the pale. Rugby's the poorer for this stupidity.
CASHKING7
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 12:47 PMThese stupid sites should be shutdown as they are a vehicle for every idiot that can type, these comment sections are not any better considering the amount of keyboard abuse that fills these pages every day.
PeterVincent
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 11:10 AMAnonymous fools, venting off, twittering and posting things they wouldn't dare say face to face with anyone.
Sevendirtywords
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 10:39 AMShould have added that my first choice at 13 would probably be Ben Cairns but given he's been out all season and not likely to return until next he's not really an option!
Sevendirtywords
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 10:37 AM#2 - given the paucity of our resources I sincerely hope he doesn't! Who are you seriously going to replace him with? Heading into this 6N we realistically had 3 choices to play 13 - Ansbro who's injured, Evans - who's been played on the WIng and De Luca. Nick was the player on the best form going into this tournament. Alex Grove is probably your next best option. I am not aware of any other Scottish 13 that is uninjured, currently getting enough game time and in good form. De Luca v France it is ;)
myriadhex
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 10:33 AMNDL did lots of good things on Sunday. Not sure he's the best option in his position (I'd bring Max Evans back to Outside Centre) but he's good enough to play for Scotland. The sinbinning was daft, but wouldn't blame his pass entirely for the Hogg try incident - Hogg should have been closer to him. Hope he doesn't let this get him down - haters messed with Dan Parks' head and if our players start quitting international duty because of the abuse they get, we won't have a team soon and the fans will only have themselves to blame.
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