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Beale reveals revolting racial slur used against him on professional debut in South Africa


Kurtley Beale. Photo / Getty Images
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Kurtley Beale has revealed that he was racially abused on his Super Rugby debut in 2007.

The Australia full-back did not say that the comments were always aimed directly at him, however he did say that he was called a “black c**t”.

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The interview was carried out by Headspace, a National Youth Mental Health Foundation. In the interview he revealed that he was struggling with alcoholism during the early stages of his career. In addition to this, Beale spoke openly about how his upbringing has changed how he is now as a man.

I’m a proud indigenous man. My culture is everything to me. Having that there, it certainly allows me to have my own identity and having that connection allows me to grow and gives me the spirit to keep leading my life in the direction I want. It just gives me that strength to keep pushing on through the tough times and allows me to be the person I am.

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It’s this kind of upbringing that in many ways could have helped him to overcome this tough stage of his life, where he claims that he had to deal with racism, during his debut in particular

There were instances where I’ve experienced racism. No one knew about it. It was actually my first professional game in South Africa,” Beale said. “At the bottom of a ruck and someone you know has called me a black c***. It was pretty hard to deal with, but whenever I felt that I would just go to my grandparents and they would keep telling to try and use it as a motivation to keep pushing on and keep moving forward in life.

Beale is currently gearing up to take on the Lions this weekend in the Super Rugby semi-final. Furthermore, the Australian talisman will be hoping to play a major role for the Wallabies in August.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=53&v=IMTyyJcJbx4

 

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Phantom 1 hour ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Fact: the gap between the North and the South has narrowed considerably - that I get. However, determining that only selecting only Home grown players or playing in the home country is is the optimal strategy is a bit of a toss up and highly reliant on the economies of the home union. I do understand that England and to a lesser degree Ireland selects home based only. The top 14 is a massive threat to their domestic product. France would probably not be affected (the money is at home). Fiji, Argentina, Samoa, Italy and you could even argue Scotland have only benefitted from this. Their players either go overseas to learn at higher levels (Fiji, Samoa, Argentina) or players coming into their leagues to strengthen the home product and their National teams (Scotland, Italy, Japan).

South Africa used to limit its selection to the home based players, but the reality of a weak currency vs what players could earn oversees meant that you lost access to your best players at some stage of their careers, with very few exceptions. Kolbe left SA as he was considered too small for International Rugby (yes coaches/selectors view), but ironically in France he forced selectors to notice his endeavors and select him. He is only reaching 50 caps now despite being north of 30 - granted rotation and the odd injury also played a role, but for the most part it is having debuted or becoming a regular so late.



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