Shhhh - don't mention that she plays rugby

The story over the weekend about the hooligan (male) rugby players who pushed a heavy roller down a hill into a tent was pretty shocking, going well beyond high jinks and fairly close to attempted homicide. Fortunately no-one was killed - though the injuries suffered were pretty severe.

However, one curious thing to note from the press coverage was how the victim was described. The basic fact is that Emma Winch is a rugby player who plays for Merthyr Tydfil - but strangely many articles in the headline or opening paragraph of the article don't call her that - indeed they almost go out of their way to avoid saying why she was there. A quick glance through some of the coverage shows that:

• Wales Online called her a "sportswoman" who was camping in a field
• The Independent and Daily Mirror simply call her a "woman"
• The Guardian, in two articles, call her a "rugby fan" or a "woman"
• The BBC called her a "rugby fan"
• The Sun called her a "camper"
• Daily Star called her a "camper"

The Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and Daily Express did identify her early on as a "rugby player", but its all rather strange. Though some of the above do, deep into their articles, mention why she was there, some completely avoid any mention about why Emma was camping at a rugby club in mid Wales.

Why? Do some journalists think that revealing that Emma was a rugby player would make readers somehow less sympathetic? The line taken by the BBC and Guardian in particular is plain weird - "rugby fan"? Do their writers/editors think that the only reason a woman might be at a tournament would be to watch?

Or to put it another way - if the roller had hit a tent occupied by a male rugby player would any newspaper have identified him as anything else?