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David Campese played 101 Tests for Australia. Mike Egerton/EMPICS Sport

Former Wallaby legend Campese slammed for rant about female sportswriters

The goose-stepping rugby star has been putting out fires (with tweets) ever since.

AUSTRALIAN RUGBY GREAT David Campese was slammed by current and former players after a tweet questioning whether women journalists should be writing about rugby.

Campese, Australiaโ€™s record try scorer famed for his goose-stepping runs on the wing, posted on Wednesday morning about Sydney Morning Herald journalist Georgina Robinson, who is covering Australiaโ€™s current tour of Europe.

โ€œWhy does the SMH get a girl to write about rugby. Growden who was a great journo and now we have someone who has no idea about the game!โ€ he tweeted.

The Growden mentioned is the newspaperโ€™s long-time rugby writer Greg Growden who recently took redundancy.

Captain Dave to the rescue

Campese, who played 101 Tests, scoring a then-record 64 tries, has since deleted the tweet, but not before an online backlash, including from Wallaby flanker David Pocock, currently in Wales ahead of this weekendโ€™s Test.

โ€œReally sad to see journos attacked based on their gender. Or a grown woman referred to as a โ€˜girlโ€™,โ€ Pocock said on Twitter.

Former league and union player Wendell Sailor also criticised the comment.

โ€œWell good morning to u Campo & I have to say u are on ur own with this comment, itโ€™s 2012 champ,โ€ he tweeted.

Campese later responded: โ€œSometimes it is good to see some people react to (a) thing you say. Please relax and see the light side of life. All press are the same.โ€

- ยฉ AFP, 2012

Exiles: The hits keep coming for London Irish and Quins lose again

Exiles: The hits keep coming for London Irish and Quins lose again

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    Mute Dave Fingleton
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    Nov 28th 2012, 9:11 AM

    โ€œAussie male is chauvinistโ€ shocka!!!!!!

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    Mute Barry Curtin
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    Nov 28th 2012, 10:20 AM

    he makes a point tho, im all for gender equality but a woman is unlikely to be a better sports writer than a man.. women can report on sports like beach volleyball, iv no issue with that

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    Mute Lian McGuire
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    Nov 28th 2012, 4:09 PM

    Why exactly? Because theyโ€™ve never played the game to the highest level? There are plenty of women who play rugby now. How many journos can say they played at a serious level approaching the one the game is now played at? Because she never played at all perhaps? You donโ€™t have to be a criminal to write great crime novels, you donโ€™t have to be a player to understand , write about and love a game.

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    Mute B Collins
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    Nov 28th 2012, 1:45 PM

    Wow. No sexism from the posters here at all. Women apparently canโ€™t be passionate about sport, would actually want to be paid to do it (outrageous!) and are just generally unlikely to be good sports writers. Oh yeah. You boys sure are ALL for gender equalityโ€ฆ
    Excuse me. I have to go and cry my pretty girl eyes out into my barbie hankie.

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    Mute Richard Crompton
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    Nov 28th 2012, 2:11 PM

    Oh B Collinsโ€ฆ.please donโ€™t let it upset you too much petal!

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    Mute Goldfish lover
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    Nov 28th 2012, 11:24 AM

    Men are passionate about rugby.. would probably do the job for free. The woman is only interested in the job and getting paid

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    Mute Barry Curtin
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    Nov 28th 2012, 3:47 PM

    sky sports have a woman reporter on their soccer saturday programme and sheโ€™s awful, i reckon sheโ€™s just a token.. same with the premier league with a female lineswoman, ended it disaster! women should stick to their own games on not report on mens sport

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    Mute Lian McGuire
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    Nov 28th 2012, 4:16 PM

    The only disaster that came with that female lines woman was the unmitigated train wreck the Andy Grey et al on Sky made of their careers by spouting the same bilge as this about her and her decision making ability. The icing on the cake being her calls were revealed to be spot on.

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    Mute Jack Kavanagh
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    Nov 28th 2012, 4:31 PM

    Everybody knows heโ€™s an eejit and to be fair โ€œwhisperโ€ he wasnโ€™t even a great playerโ€ฆ

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