Editorial: Disgraceful behaviour has to stop

Security staff deal to a pitch invader during the Kiwis v Kangaroos test. Photo / Richard Robinson

Opinion

Three months ago, New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan was so embarrassed at the behaviour of New Zealanders near him at the Bledisloe Cup match in Melbourne that he made public his concerns for next year's Rugby World Cup.

His warning was downplayed by one-time teammate Martin Snedden, who is in charge of organising the event.

"We had a heap of people at that game and sought feedback from them," Mr Snedden said. "Most of them had a completely different experience. Yes, it was bound to have happened in the area where Justin was sitting, but was it widespread? I don't think it was."

Now he has reason to take it more seriously. The disgraceful exhibition at Eden Park on Saturday shows that something has gone seriously wrong in our sporting culture. Drink is blamed, as always, but it is not an excuse.

The most addled brain would know not to boo through the national anthem of a visiting team if it was accustomed to elementary standards of hospitality and decency.

Those looking for excuses can cite the long hot afternoon and that the Australian anthem heralded the second game of a "double-header" - there will be none of those at the Rugby World Cup. They might also note that this crowd was watching rugby league and hope the same people do not come to the rugby.

But regular league crowds at Mt Smart Stadium do not behave like this. The closest comparison is probably one-day cricket that attracts to Eden Park an element liable to pelt opposing players with plastic bottles or paper projectiles.

That merry-making is more distracting than menacing. This time, by all accounts, it was not funny.

The brawls, bottle-throwing and boorishness raise immediate problems for the newly upgraded Eden Park. League's Four Nations event was the first proper test of the facilities.

Like all modern sports stadiums, Eden Park's stands now contain plenty of food and beverage counters on attractive concourses where screens keep patrons alert to the action on the field.

In this and other respects we have a truly world-class sporting venue. But our sporting and drinking culture is such that we will probably not be able to enjoy the venue to the full. The likely response to Saturday's disgrace will be to control alcohol sales more strictly, station more officials around the ground and ask for more police to be present.

We will get rationed drinks in paper cups - like children - under the watchful eye of stewards and we will deserve no better unless we start to assert some maturity. It is well past time for sporting crowds to show their scorn for anyone around them who becomes a witless, drunken embarrassment booing the visitors' anthem or abusing their supporters.

The behaviour that Justin Vaughan witnessed among New Zealanders in the crowd at Melbourne, repeated on a larger scale last weekend, is all too familiar, particularly when we engage Australia. Naturally we struggle to match the larger country in most sporting fields but disappointed supporters are letting us down far more seriously on the sidelines.

Drinking restrictions will not make these people grow up. They might not wake up to themselves until they hear the contempt in which they are held by the majority who have to suffer their presence.

They have no right to embarrass us, no right to misrepresent the standards of sportsmanship, hospitality and decency of this country.

Next year, we will welcome international audiences to our rugby grounds. Unless we can address this small-minded attitude to Australia, the world is going to find us pathetic.