GORDON LIGHTFOOT | Sport
IN YOUR HEAD
Former members of the Irish rock band, The Cranberries, were surprised to see an uptick in streams they were getting in New Zealand this week.
Their song “Zombie” is connected to the spat between All Blacks centre/troll Rieko Ioane, and former Irish captain and current crybaby, Jonny Sexton.
In response to Sexton’s autobiography, where he whined about some of Ioane’s on-field hurty words, the All Blacks’ chief chirper responded on social media with the early 90s hit. The chorus by the late great Dolores O’Riordan famously starts with the words “In your head”, implying that Ioane’s sledging did exactly what it was intended to do.
While Ioane has found some rent-free living space in Sexton’s top two inches, Noel Hogan, the Cranberries’ lead guitarist, is apparently not much of a rugby follower.
“I just happened to check our streams today and saw this strange spike in New Zealand of all places,” he said while sipping a pint of Guiness, of course.
“Zombie’s a great song, I’m still really proud of it. But why the spike? What’s going on down there?”
Sexton recently revealed in his book that in the final seconds of the World Cup quarterfinal last year, he had called Ioane a “fake humble f***er” after the All Black had said “enjoy your retirement you c***”.
Ioane took some time out from posting agitating memes online to talk to reporters.
“Hey the Cranberries are a great band, so happy to drive a bit more traffic to their song. And I hope Jonny’s enjoying his retirement,” he said, smirking.
Meanwhile, rugby journalists around the country are “thrilled to have something different to write about”, now that this public feud is continuing.
More to come.
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