Lion-whipping mascot has taunts ready

Bay of Plenty mascot Hori Bop dishes out some punishment to a hapless lion. Picture / Alan Gibson

The Lions game against Bay of Plenty has sold out and fans of the touring side are in for a peculiarly local rark-up.

The home team's mascot, Hori Bop, will be in Rotorua with a capacity crowd of 30,000.

Tickets for the Saturday night game at the Rotorua International Stadium sold out on Tuesday night and Hori Bop is warming up to taunt to the visitors.

But the controversial blue-and-yellow character will launch his tirades from the stands, not the sidelines.

He is banned from the field after the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union dumped him as official mascot last year.

Speaking to the Herald in between whipping a volunteer in a lion suit and screaming "Get a move on, you big flaming pussy" at a team practice this week, he said the union also took away his changing room.

"I've been reduced to getting changed in the toilets."

Hori Bop said he was dumped because he was considered to be not politically correct.

But union chief executive Paul Abbot said that was not so. He said Hori Bop had requested unreasonable appearance fees and was unreliable.

The team's supporters, the Bop Mafia, have objected to the union's treatment of Hori Bop and have created banners and T-shirts saying "Bring Back Hori".

"The thing that makes him so much fun is his unpredictability and spontaneity and the union can't cope with that," said spokesman Nick Baker.

Team coach Vern Cotter said he had no comment to make about Hori Bop other than that he was noisy.

Captain Wayne Ormond said the players loved him.

"Hori's a great guy. He's always got a big smile, pumping the boys up."

Ormond said his team was fired up to play the Lions.

Despite the sell-out, tickets were still available yesterday on TradeMe.co.nz.

Four embankment seats with a face value of $35 each had a $150 bid.

A Barmy Army convoy arrived in Rotorua last night, descending on Hennessy's Irish Bar, their headquarters for the game.