Racism in Rugby League

[adrenalinxx]

I've been reading an article about racism in sport and it uses examples from Football like racist chanting from England towards Turkey fans/players, racist chanting towards black England players in Spain and Slovakia as well as some examples of racist chanting in the domestic game.

I can't remember any time were there have been problems with racism within rugby league, certainly since I've been watching there have been no major incidents regarding racism in this country, there was the incident in Australian with Bryan Fletcher.

Is there anything about Rugby League that means there is less/no racism, is it just because rugby league is a relatively small sport or are there things other sports could learn from Rugby League.

[ancientnloyal]

Rugby League is a family sport and always has been. I think even in the days of Billy Boston when there weren't that many black players there wasn't racism around, probably because he was a great player and people respected him and so why would they call his skin colour?

Martin Offiah, Hendy Gill, Jason Robinson, etc... I never recall anyone in the media or in the stands making racist remarks about them. Football is different, they have more fans so numerically, a better 'chance' of having more acism due to more people that follow football.

[Bear]

There is no reason to be racist in sport... A lad called Monty Panesar a p**i. and he said how can he play for england when he is a n****r! i said for the simple reason, HE IS ENGLISH!!! if it wasent for Monty England wouldnt have beat pakistan. I said you are allowed to be a black englishman!

All these black players are no diffrent to whites. they do exactly the same on the feild as everyone else. DO THIER JOBS.

they are better at their game than he and some people will ever be. In my book racism in sport is jelousy.

[cpwigan]

Racism did exist in the very early 80's when Dessy Drummond, Ellery and Hendy Gill were playing. As I recall Warrington was the worst place. Bananas and fruit were thrown at them and if I recall correctly Hendy Gill actually either peeled one and took a bite or threw them back.

Hull could be bad too. micron used to accidentally pick up crowd comments etc and you could hear the odd racist shout.

[Bear]

Warrington Last year was bad... You had racist chants being shouted at Fa Fili or however you spell his name...

The stewards did nothing

[cpwigan]

I know that Mal Meninga suffered from racism early in his career in Australia.

[Bear]

cpwigan posted:
I know that Mal Meninga suffered from racism early in his career in Australia.

I heard he was a brilliant player

Theres no need for it i dont think. Was it Jon Barnes who kicked up a banana and kicked it into touch when he was playing for England?

[CherryandWhiteandProud]

The only cultural rivalery is that between the Lancastrian and the Yorkshireman... and that isn't exacly racism, just friendly banter .

[Fraggle]

CherryandWhitea ndProud posted:
The only cultural rivalery is that between the Lancastrian and the Yorkshireman... and that isn't exacly racism, just friendly banter .

Friendly banter? It was a WAR! Ok, so it was a long long time ago, but there wasn't much friendly banter around back then...!

[lucky 13]

RL has had racism . Les Boyd gave Gill AND Hanley some in a John Player Final . If I remember their was a bit of a scrap ,Boyd did a monkey impression to Gill and Hanley hit him , Gilly scored a few minutes later and gave him a legendary grin.

We have been blessed with some great black players at wigan and it has been great for us not only to watch but to appreciate these people for their athleticism and sportsmanship the Racism thing isn't a issue because of the qualities these players have brought.

Des Drumond jumped into crowd at widnes he got a ban and fine although he was spat at. Wire,both Hull clubs and featherstone were worst fans at the time, this seems to have changed not just in RL but all sport in this country thankfully.

Clive Sullivan was GB captain in early 70's think it was early 90's or late 80's when RU played their first black player (Chris Otey I think)this also has changed and now I dont think people even think about black sportsmen playing for england at any sport is news .

Peoples attitudes have changed Bolton Everton fans for instance were proud that they had never had a black player .Everton fans chucked bananas at John Barnes and he picked it up and ate it he was the first black player in a mersy derby this is not that long ago .

The next thing is to get the Asian community involved when this happens and it isn't headline news (like with monty)then racism in sport really will be a thing of the past