Now who would off thought that a set of questions put to rugby personal would provoke such strong reactions.

Difficult task for BBC pitch side reporter

Sonia McLaughlan of the BBC had the awkward task of speaking to England captain Owen Farrell after England’s defeat against Wales. Mclaughlan, who is a very experienced broadcast journalist was only doing her job, but she received unwanted abuse on social media about her interview.

Sonia, was only asking the questions that most of the watching public would have wanted to ask. I know to my cost that it can be very awkward interviewing either a player or coach after an individual or team have lost a match.

Emptions run high after a game

Emotions run very high with sporting people. Understandably so as if they have lost a close game or not most of the time they are not really in the mood to talk to somebody.

For so many people to say that McLaughlan was trying to goad Farrell into criticising the referee is wrong. If he had of said something about the ref then of course he would have talked himself into trouble, but she was only after a reaction, nothing else.

One of the top rugby reporters and broadcaster

In my opinion I feel Sonia was only doing her job in the best way possible. Somebody would have had to ask those type of difficult questions. Farrell understandably was upset and clearly didn’t want to talk much, especially about the result.

For people to go on social media and type out abusive messages to McLaughlan is totally uncalled for. So much so that McLaughlan was left in tears in the car park at Cardiff after reading reactions on social media.

Would the same abuse of happened if a man was asking the questions

It would be interesting to see if the same angry reaction would off happened if a man had been asking the same questions. There is a big element of people whenever a woman journalist asks a question they simple don’t like it.

No doubt they feel that because it is a women asking the question they don’t understand about the sport. Really, I don’t think so as I have bumped into a huge amount of fellow media personnel who are very well up on their knowledge of sport.

Yet when somebody like Jurgen Klopp takes exception to Des Kelly’s approach from BT Sport, people say that is ok.

Many women in sport now are of the highest quality

It has taken a long time for women in sport to get the genuine recognition they deserve. Many women pundits have come to the fore now and are excellent. Pitch side reporters like Sonia do a wonderful job in testing conditions.

So next time you see a reporter having to ask difficult questions when a side has been heavily beaten or a controversial moment, remember this. Don’t immediately take to social media to register your annoyance.

The person concerned is only doing their job, put yourself in their position and see if you could handle the situation better. I can tell you know the answer to that would be a definite NO.