French rugby representative Mathieu Bastareaud brought shame and embarrassment to my city and my country last week with his serious assault allegation. Although the truth has now emerged about his drunken idiocy there seems little likelihood of proper redress.
Of course if any ordinary member of the public made a false complaint to Police they would immediately be up on a charge. But the local Police and NZ Rugby Union, who “diligently” investigated the claim, made sure the touring French team were well beyond our shores before they released their findings – and its not like it is an offence worthy of extradition. So it is very unlikely there will be any legal recourse in the case.
Mercifully, rugby receives relatively little media bandwidth outside of Australia and New Zealand (contrary to popular belief here), so I’m unsure how much international coverage this incident actually received. Perhaps then it is a moot point. But the fact that a number of highly placed individuals colluded to protect the errant player and the arrogance shown by some involved has led to a few analogies being drawn with another infamous insult involving a certain rainbow coloured vessel.
Perhaps that analogy is a little harsh. After all we have plenty of examples of our own immature, drunken sportsmen getting into trouble whilst on tour. Nothing new there. What continues to rile me is that our society tolerates this kind of behaviour even at the expense of national reputation. It is the kind of slur a small, geographically distant nation can ill afford.
“Mercifully, rugby receives relatively little media bandwidth outside of Australia and New Zealand (contrary to popular belief here), so I’m unsure how much international coverage this incident actually received.”
I’ve seen absolutely nothing outside the NZ media.
“Perhaps that analogy is a little harsh.”
A little? We’re comparing an act of terrorism resulting in the death of an individual with a drunken (but famous, and rugby-playing) twat making a false complaint. But the point, although overstated, is perfectly valid. And your last two sentences I agree wholeheartedly with.
The incident certainly got coverage over this side of the globe – it was pretty big news for a day or so in l’Equipe, the biggest circulation paper in France. A couple of French friends who follow rugby traded a few tweets with me – first it was me apologising for kiwi drunken idiocy-as-usual, then it was the French begging forgiveness. A good laugh.
As for the coverup, I would expect no less from the French rugby union. We tend to be quite idealistic in NZ and naively expect everyone else to play with a straight bat too. Whereas smokescreens, delayed press releases or simple barefaced lies are tolerated common currency over here.
Thanks for the comments guys. Apologies for delay in responding, had a serious issue to deal with here.
Guess I’m left wondering if Frogs and Aussies can’t play fair – why do we keep inviting them here? The spirit of the game is being lost in the rush to extract the maximum financial return.