Islanders allege racial taunts

Race Relations

By Special Correspondent

PACIFIC Islanders playing club rugby in Sydney have been subjected to crude racial taunts by Australian opponents.

The “sledging” came to light at a hearing of the New South Wales Rugby Union judiciary last month. Some players for the Warringah Club referred to islanders playing for OTS

Drummoyne as “niggers”, “stupid black

coconuts” and “black c s”, ac cording to Drummoyne chief executive Rick Wayde. At the hearing, Drummoyne’s New Zealand-born break away Jack Noble was suspended for two matches after being found guilty of striking an opponent last Sydney’s match, in which Warringah scored a runaway 78-0 win over the bottom-of the-table home club. Drummoyne offic ials said alleged racial remarks by unidentified Warringah players had led to the brawl. No Fijians were involved in the match, but Fiji-born player Acura Niuqila told the Suva-based Fiji Times newspaper that he had been subjected to racial insults during his Australian career with the Randwick club.

The judiciary’s decision followed about 90 minutes of evidence during

which OTS Drummoyne players and officials charged Warringah players were involved in racial “sledging” and eye gouging. A number of Western Samoans and Tongans were in the Drummoyne team, but no Fijians.

Drummoyne team captain Grant Williams told the judiciary that during the game he had heard Warringah players call Noble a “Samoan c , nigger twice, a few f s here and there, and coconut”. Williams said he could not identify the “sledger”.

Drummoyne club captain Matt Thomas said a scuffle broke out between Noble and Warringah breakaway Matt Guberina, after which two other Warringah players repeated racial in sults. Noble was sent off by referee Ross Higgins when he continued to punch Guberina after the whistle and also spat at Warringah players. Hooker led Churchyard supported the two captains’ evidence. Wayde supplied a doctor’s report which concluded Noble had been the victim of eye-gouging.

Judiciary chairman Kim Garling said it would be improper for the body to comment on the sledging and gouging allegations “without giving the persons accused the opportunity to rebut them”. □

Victim of race attacks: Acura Niuqila training in Fiji in 1992