Rugby wives take on trolls: Barrett, Savea and Dagg weigh in

Daisy Dagg, left, and Fatima Savea, right, have outed trolls on Instagram. Photo / Supplied

The wives of some of New Zealand's top rugby talent are fighting back against online trolls.

Daisy Dagg, wife of former All Black Israel, has shared some of the outrageous abuse she has been sent through Instagram. Spy won't give the trolls the airtime they desperately crave, but the scale of abuse forced Dagg to go on the offensive.

The busy mother-of-two, who co-owns a childcare centre in Christchurch, has created a cookbook and is an advocate for healthy eating, showed followers some of the shocking messages she has received.

'It can happen to anyone, so please if you are getting bullied on social media then reach out to someone to let them know," she wrote.

"Again guys, I just want to say that these comments don't affect me at all. I just want to post about it for exposure about social bullying."

Good friend Hannah Barrett, wife of All Black Beauden, has been a victim of trolling.

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The best part of golfing is spending time with you 🧡

A post shared by HANNAH BARRETT (@hannahlaity) on May 13, 2019 at 10:51pm PDT

Fatima Savea, wife of former Hurricanes' player Julian, showed solidarity to a fellow
Hurricanes' WAG who fell victim to trolling last year.

The focus of their rebuttles was to spell out how much the partners look after the boys and sacrifice their own ambitions to help their partners reach their goals.

"If you only see what's happening on social media and envy these ladies, don't spread your negativity and attempt to humiliate and hurt them," the players partner posted at the time.

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Loving Istanbul 🇹🇷

A post shared by F A T I M A S A V E A 🦋 (@_timasavea) on Jun 19, 2019 at 2:45am PDT

Earlier this year, Savea and her family had their own battle against online trolling after Toulon fans descended to gutter-talk on Twitter, when Mourad Boudjellal, the owner of Toulon Rugby Union club, criticised her husband on Twitter.

The Saveas were the targets of savage posts which saw Fatima come to her husband's defence, eventually responding that she was "absolutely disgusted by this sh*t".

"Take a minute to think about how your words can affect someone's life and their mental health," she wrote.

"And people wonder why mental health in rugby has become a big problem. Take a minute to be considerate of people's feelings instead of bashing them behind a keyboard or phone screen."

Online abuse from keyboard warriors has become a growing issue for those in the spotlight. Some politicians particularly suffer and Weekend Herald columnist Lizzie Marvelly has talked about what she puts up with, describing it as "a portaloo at the end of the last day of a music festival plagued by rain, a shortage of any food other than extra-spicy curry, and an outbreak of dysentery".

- Ricardo Simich