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A SECTION of the Twickenham crowd at last Saturday night’s Test between England and New Zealand has come under fire for allegedly directing homophobic abuse at openly gay referee Nigel Owens.
English rugby fan Keith Wilson wrote to UK paper The Guardian after the match, revealing his disgust at the slurs directed at Owens.
“As a lifelong rugby fan, a straight man in his 60s, I could not believe that a bunch of men half my age watching a rugby match in the 21st century could be capable of hurling such nasty, foul-mouthed, racist, homophobic abuse at an openly gay match official,” Wilson wrote.
“My equally disgusted son is in his 30s but next to him, hearing this vitriol, was a little boy. I felt ashamed.
Wilson suggested that alcohol was a contributing factor to the offensive behaviour occurring in sections of the crowd.
“I did speak to the men after the match, but they were not in a fit state to engage in sensible discussion. I suspect that if it had been in a football match they’d have been thrown out,” Wilson wrote.
“There was a time when you could trust rugby supporters to take alcohol into a game and behave like grownups.
“The time has come to treat rugby louts like football louts — no alcohol in the ground, zero tolerance to bigots.”
Writing for The Guardian, Robert Kitson argued that while some of the abuse directed at Owens could have been spurred by frustrations at his refereeing performance, such an incident is yet another example of the changing values of professional rugby.
“Could it be that the conduct of those who watch and play rugby union — and the fundamentals of respect upon which the sport is based — is changing before our eyes?” Kitson asked.
Last weekend’s internationals provided numerous examples of unsporting conduct off the field at rugby fixtures.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/sport/rugby/w...-1227120493721
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Originally Posted by andrewg
