Eden Park Four Nations – “Disgraceful” Behaviour Slammed

Earlier today we wrote about the alcohol fuelled mayhem at last night’s Four Nation’s match at Eden Park. Read Drunken fans marr Eden Park’s Four Nations

This is a video of one of the bottle throwing incidents at the match, it appeared on YouTube today

“Eden Park November 6th. New Zealand V Australia. Unfortunately when the convicts took a convincing lead half way through the second half, the crowd went feral, chucking bottles and everything onto lower bays and the field. This was about the fourth time around, so most of the f-wits had exhausted their supply of missiles, but as you can see, they were still throwing quite a lot of stuff. It was like being at a Canterbury Bulldogs match.”

League Ambassador Sir Peter Leitch is reported to have criticised security staff for not being quicker to deal with “rowdy people”

Fights and bottle-throwing at last night’s league test has brought criticism of fans and security this morning.

The match between the Kiwis and the Australian league teams was a rehearsal for next year’s Rugby World Cup.

League Ambassador Sir Peter Leitch has criticised security staff, saying they should have acted quicker and thrown rowdy people out. He’s also taken a swing at the fans. “I was appalled at the behaviour” He told Newstalk ZB “people who threw bottles, be they plastic bottles, disgrace. Very disappointing.”

He says the behaviour put the game into disrepute.

Perhaps the consumption of alcohol on sale at the match and its ‘delivery system’ (bottles) was more to blame than the security staff. Look at the video – it’s hard to see how staff could’ve stopped the bottle throwing.

Comments left on this YouTube video

“therealgamerman64
“The crowd was a disgrace. There was no way the security could stop everyone from acting like they did. It was terrible! Check out all those bottles! That Mexican wave of doom went around 3 times. I was seeing little kids get nailed in the head by half full bottles of beer.”

Usag1Yoj1mbo
“Until alcohol is banned from sporting events, I will never take my kids to watch these games. Atre you there to watch 2 teams of athletes play or get pissed, start a fight and injure an elderly fan with a half full bottle of beer.

New Zealand supporters are disgusting, oafish animals.”

Australia’s Courier Mail picked-up on the game turning ugly, saying that Cameron Smith had thought officials had done a good job and praised them for their efforts:

“The only other league game played at the ground was the 1988 World Cup final won 25-12 by an Australian team captained by Queenslander, Wally Lewis who was at Eden Park last night working for Channel 9.

No-one dared throw a bottle at “The King”, but they did throw a bottle at last night’s captain, Cameron Smith as he lined up a kick for goal

Smith said he felt in most danger sitting on the bench close to the crowd, and that was when Civoniceva took the direct hit from the full plastic bottle.

“I was ducking when I was on the bench,” he said. “I thought the officials did a good job. They stopped the game once to calm the crowd down and get bottles off the field.

“I had something come over my left shoulder when I was lining up a kick for goal. I’m not sure what it was. They try to put you off, but I composed myself and put the ball between the posts.

“I don’t think I’ve ever sung the national anthem while people were booing in the middle of it. Obviously they are very passionate about their side and their country, and they’re trying to get their side over the line.”

Australian coach Tim Sheens said he was proud of his men for producing such a great effort under adversity.

“They did everything they could to intimidate us, and it was pretty hard when you think we had four debutants,” Sheens said. “We played smart footy. More here