Kurtley Beale: message about obese woman may end career, page-2

Kurtley Beale text allegations have potential to rip Wallabies apart

The star player could use next week’s conduct hearing to challenge how the team has been managed

• Kurtley Beale dropped as ARU investigates text message allegations

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Kurtley Beale faces stiff sanctions if the allegations against him are proved.Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images
Whatever the outcome of the Wallabies player Kurtley Beale’s misconduct hearing into allegedly offensive text messages about female staffer Di Patston next week, it’s clear the Australian Rugby Union is in a rotten, stinking mess.
Beale might not be without blame – let’s be clear about that – but it has to be seen in the context of the atmosphere in the camp that has developed. Too many players are talking off the record to make coach Ewen McKenzie’s denials of a lost locker room plausible. Chief executive Bill Pulver has either been blissfully unaware or wilfully ignorant. Either way, McKenzie’s position is equally untenable as a coach who no longer has the backing of his players.
McKenzie went on the record on Friday and denied he was having an affair with Patston. He should have done so a lot sooner; the rumour mill has been whirling for some time. At the very least, players are wary of McKenzie’s working relationship with Patston and the influence she has over team affairs.
He still needs to address the players’ concerns about Patston, whose title is team business manager. But the players don’t want her around because they don’t know what her role is – team manager, psychologist or McKenzie’s personal assistant.


The Beale saga is a tale told backwards. It started with a verbal spat with Patston during the team’s flight from Johannesburg to Sao Paulo two weeks ago, just hours after the Wallabies 28-10 loss to the Springboks at Newlands. That incident resulted in an integrity hearing, which also reportedly looked into the allegedly offensive texts and images Beale sent to players in June. Guardian Australia understands one of the messages was sent to Patston accidentally.
Fast forward to next week, and Beale is now facing a three-member code of conduct tribunal headed by district court judge Mark Williams. The in-flight verbal spat has been placed on the backburner; next week is all about the texts which Pulver has described as “deeply offensive”.
The Rugby Union Players Association (RUPA) nominated Justice Williams and one other member, so it won’t be a kangaroo (or, if you like, wallaby) court. RUPA chairman Bruce Hodgkinson SC is a respected industrial lawyer, well versed in workplace disputes involving employee disciplinary proceedings. He has been advising the players’ union. Beale will receive a fair hearing, and if the allegations are proven the sanctions are likely to be substantial.
It is understood that Beale’s submissions next week will centre around the context and background of alleged offending. Specifically, that the team was and remains in disarray, divided over Patston’s role and with players left frustrated and confused. Beale’s actions in June were borne out of frustration, it will be argued.
A source close the Beale camp told the Guardian that the star Waratahs playmaker has resigned himself to a lengthy legal battle at the tribunal and maybe the courts afterwards – not just to keep his job, but to save his reputation. Those closest to Beale harbour deep reservations about the scope of next week’s hearing, believing the exclusive focus on incidents of alleged inappropriate text messaging will gloss over “what’s really going on in the Wallabies”.
Guardian Australia also understands race could be raised as an aggravating factor given Beale’s status as the only Aboriginal player in the Wallabies.
So much in this saga remains to be played out. What is clear for now is that Pulver and the ARU’s attempts to regain control of the situation are illusory. Putting Beale before a code of conduct inquiry for alleged wrongdoing that was supposedly dealt with team management in June – McKenzie denies knowing about the messages then – may not unfold with the expected narrative of just another overpaid sports star undone by potentially sexist and offensive texts.
Instead, this time next week we could be drawing parallels with Thomas Keneally’s The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. Any which way this debacle unfolds, it will be ugly for all involved. Just like the Kevin Pietersen fiasco with the England cricket team, the full story behind Beale’s texts has the potential to tear the Wallabies apart at the seams. And, if that isn’t enough, the Wallabies play the All Blacks next Saturday.


http://www.theguardian.com/sport/bl...gations-have-potential-to-rip-wallabies-apart