New Zealand Rugby says the homophobic comments made by the presenters of Controversy Corner “were very disappointing”. Neil Sorensen The General Manager of Professional Rugby for New Zealand rugby, Neil Sorensen, responded to the comments made during ten minutes of a Controversy Corner show that was rife with racism, sexism and homophobia. During the show contributor Kieran Smyth said that he had asked his daughter during an All Blacks game whether she would really allow his grandson to “play for that tight-pants, weird singlet, bloody gay homo sport?” referring to AFL. Watson then tells Smyth, “lets not be derogatory” and that they need to “appease the 1 percent of people who control society”. Smyth replies “I’ve told you how much I love gays”. The comments came only weeks after the sporting bodies of New Zealand jointly announced they are working towards policies and programmes to combat discrimination in sports. New Zealand Rugby has led the initiative and Sorensen says “Rugby is doing its bit to stamp out discrimination through its sideline behaviour programme, Applaud. “In addition it’s committed to promoting diversity in the game and is working alongside other sports to develop programmes to assist this.” Following the comments made by Watson and Smyth, Controversy Corner has been canned by Radio Sport.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 18th July 2016 - 4:19pm