Ex-Castleford Tigers forward Jacques O’Neill in controversial Love Island incident

Jacques O’Neill has been a busy man this past fortnight, sunning himself in the Love Island villa.

After being granted a release by Castleford Tigers to ‘pursue other opportunities’, that opportunity was revealed in the shape of ITV2’s Love Island last Sunday.

The 23-year-old made an entrance into the villa, sweeping Welsh wonder Paige off her feet before his occupation as as rugby league player was revealed.

However, it hasn’t been all positive for the former Castleford forward, with his mum revealing the amount of hate she has been receiving on behalf of Jacques’ appearance in the villa.

“People sending nasty messages to me, please can you stop it does hurt thank you.”

That prompted a whole barrage of support from viewers passing on their well-wishes to Janet and Jacques.

And, with the dumping of one former islander, Remi, has revealed how he ‘hates’ the former Castleford star.

“There was a lot of stuff that wasn’t aired – a lot of stuff going on. So basically, me and Jaques got into quite a lot of arguments and it just made my experience shit. It ruined it for me,” Remi confessed on the Reality with Will Ndobvu podcast.

“People were saying: ‘It’s because he’s got a rugby persona’. But you can’t treat people like that.”

Remi went on to describe the confrontations, saying: “He was just trying to get on to me.

“It was so jarring but I was the only one to stick up for myself because he would always do that to people and I just like to stick it on him and say ‘Shut up!'”