The mother of a teenage Rugby player has requested video footage of an alleged racial attack against her son in a state championship match in June.
The teenager was playing for Central West against the Manly Marlins in the regional town of Orange on June 14, when he was allegedly set upon by players, who directed a number of disgusting slurs at him.
It is alleged the boy was repeatedly called a 'black a-- c---', a 'black n----r' and a 'b---g'.
The boy's mother, who wishes to remain anonymous in order to protect his wellbeing, told NITV News he was "distraught" following the incident.
“When we reported the incident, the first insinuation was that my boy was soft and needed to toughen up and deal with on-field banter. The other common thing they do is say ‘well we have coloured players on our team too’," she said.
“My son can handle sledging, but when that final whistle blew, he just broke, fell into his sisters’ arms and cried."
She said that the referee claimed he did not hear the slurs, nor did the opposition coach.
“My boy just wants to play the game he loves. I’ve never seen him so visibly distressed as he was when he came off that field. And it wasn’t one comment, it happened throughout the entire game with very offensive, specifically targeted slurs," she said.
“We don’t experience it in any other sport like union. The response is always the same: ‘Oh, we didn’t hear it, didn’t quite know what it was.
“How can you deal with something when you won’t acknowledge that it exists, you say it doesn’t happen and you victim blame and shut down the families that are brave enough to come forward.”
The New South Wales Rugby Union is currently investigating the incident.
“NSWJRU upholds the Rugby Australia Code of Conduct and is conducting a full investigation with all parties consulted,” it said in a statement.
An NSW Rugby competition spokeswoman that the match official's microphones didn't pick up anything but vision suggested something was said to the boy.
His mother has been in constant contact with the governing body and has asked to review the vision.
The Manly Marlins declined to comment to NITV News but last week the club said they didn't believe the incident occurred.
“We deny it was said. From a Manly perspective, we don’t condone racism, we never have, and we deny this actually happened," Manly Junior Rugby Union president Peter Gibson told the Sydney Morning Herald.
A spokesperson for Central West Rugby said they were supporting the boy and his mother.
A bigger issue
Former CEO of the Lloyd McDermott Rugby Development team, which was founded to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation in Rugby, Tom Evans, said he was 'unsurprised' to hear about the incident.
He believes that racism is a broader issue within the sport right across the country.
“Being born from a privileged, elite schoolboy background, just like all other sports in Australia and society at large, Rugby can’t say it doesn’t have an issue, that would be fanciful,” he told NITV News.
He urged the governing bodies to deal with incidents involving racism immediately, particularly at a junior level where a statement of no-tolerance needs to be communicated directly via the actions of adults, club officials and staff.
“If it’s ignored by staff and not dealt with on the spot, it sends two messages, it says to the child making the comments that what they’re saying is ok and they’ll be supported, and to the child on the receiving end, it says it really doesn’t worry us whether you’re going to get racially abused or not," he said.
“Process and sanctions around dealing with this are unclear. I would say that the answer is that they have none because they’ve not enforced it."
