Clown of the week: Gregor Paul

New Zealand Herald journalist and so called "expert" Gregor Paul has, on top of his colossal ignorance, also managed to prove himself totally contradictory fool.

Back last November, New Zealand Herald journalist Gregor Paul launched a series of scathing attacks on New Zealand travelling to play Japan. In his words Japan were "a metaphorical walnut" and went onto complain that a Pacific Island didn’t get a game, claiming "Samoa would have cobbled together a better side" (clearly ignorant to the fact it was a game outside the IRB release window and what happened the last time Samoa did play such a game).

He wasn't finished there though, after the match he continued in similar vein saying the match "had no real point", bemoaned the All Blacks not playing a European domestic side and finished off with "frankly, the test, from a rugby perspective for both countries, was a giant waste of time".

The NZRU clearly didn't agree and news emerged this year that the All Blacks were planning proposed extra November game with the USA, a side not guaranteed to be at full strength, lost 38-20 to Japan in June and are ranked 5 places below them in the IRB rankings.

Considering his pile of polemic articles on the Japan fixture based on their playing standards and “the giant waste of time” it was, you’d think Paul would lead a full on no holds barred onslaught at the idea of playing USA. But nope, just 4 months on, according to Paul this game has "credible rugby imperatives" and is "a valid rugby odyssey".

Whilst the Japan game was criticised for being about the "cash motive", in the USA game it's merely "important but not overriding reason the All Blacks are there". Paul has directly contradicted and made a fool of himself, he clearly had for whatever reason a dislike for Japan rugby and made sure he flaunted it in every article he did over there.