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Eleven months after the Zebo affair, Ulster have now banned a second fan after incident versus Harlequins
By Liam Heagney
Ulster CEO Jonny Petrie has taken to social media to reveal that the Irish province have banned another fan from future matches at Belfast’s Kingspan Stadium.
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The reputation of the province’s supporters was dented last January when Simon Zebo alleged he was on the receiving end of a racial taunt during Racing’s Champions Cup defeat by Ulster.
Petrie reacted by handing a lifetime ban to a spectator and issuing written apologies to both the player and the French club. They also thanked supporters who had provided information to assist their investigation.
Eleven months later, they have similarly issued the ultimate sanction to a loud-mouth supporter in the wake of their recent European win over Harlequins.
Taking to social media to explain the club’s sanction, Petrie wrote: “As a result of complaints made by other supporters at the Harlequins game, I have today banned an individual from future Ulster matches.
As a result of complaints made by other supporters at the Harlequins game, I have today banned an individual from future @UlsterRugby matches. We all want @KingspanStadium to be an intimidating place for away teams to visit, but abusive behaviour will never have any place here
— Jonny Petrie (@JP_Petrie) December 18, 2019
“We want Kingspan Stadium to be an intimidating place for away teams to visit, but abusive behaviour will never have any place here.”
Petrie’s decision was quickly lauded by some Ulster fans:
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Hear Hear Jonny. We love the banter and can be intimidating at all home grounds without being abusive. There is no room for it anywhere.
— John Mulligan (@Mulliganj) December 18, 2019
https://twitter.com/chrisjohnston11/status/1207258369456660480
Well done – good to see fans self policing too as stewards and management cant be expected to monitor all visitors all the time.
Only by making bad behavior socially unacceptable among us fans can we remove it from our game.
— Killian Byrne (@killianbyrne) December 18, 2019
Ulster are currently riding high in both European and domestic competitions this season, topping their Heineken Champions Cup pool with for successive wins and sitting in second behind Leinster in their Guinness PRO14 conference.
WATCH: Jim Hamilton, Darren Cave and John Barclay discuss whether Conor Murray is still Ireland’s first-choice scrum-half
