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'You've never been in the arena': All Black responds after posting 'disrespectful' video after France loss
By Kim Ekin
All Black halfback TJ Perenara has responded publicly to complaints after he took to social media following the All Blacks 27-13 loss to France in Paris to call out "everyone talking sh**".
The 83 Test halfback defended the national side by posting a video on social media where he told certain fans to "shush" because "you've never been in the arena".
The No 9 predicted that the All Blacks would be back, along with the New Zealand Warriors and UFC fighter Israel Adesanya, who all ended up in defeat on the same weekend.
"Obviously been a tough week for sport here in New Zealand," Perenara said on a video posted to social media.
"But everyone talking sh**, firstly shush, you've never been in the arena.
"And secondly this is the time we need to get behind our teams and our athletes.
"Izzy [Israel Adesanya] will be back, the Wahs [Warriors] will be back, and the ABs [All Blacks] will be back."
After blowback from Kiwi fans who thought that the message was "disrespectful" to the supporters of the All Blacks, Perenara responded with a second video to clarify his intentions.
"Now my message wasn't to be disrespectful to the New Zealand public," Perenara clarified in a second video.
"It's aimed at the people abusing our teams and athletes online.
"But other people shared a similar opinion to Mark and it got me thinking, so many people support and love our game, but do we know the game as much as we actually think we do.
"So if you have any opinions or critiques on what the team can do going forward let me know.
"I'm geniunely interested to see what knowledge is out there and if I think any of it is valid."
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Latest Comments
Excellent game management in the last 15 or so minutes to close it out. Aussie got a bit panicky.
Go to commentsWhile all this is going on… I’ve been thinking more about the NFL draft system and how to make the commercial elements of the game more sustainable for SA teams who precariously live on the fringe of these developments. SA teams play in Europe now, and are welcome, because there’s a novelty to it. SA certainly doesn’t bring the bucks (like a Japan would to SR) but they bring eyes to it. But if they don’t perform (because they don’t have the money like the big clubs) - it’s easy come easy go… I think there is an element of strategic drafting going on in SA. Where the best players (assets) are sort of distributed amongst the major teams. It’s why we’re seeing Moodie at the Bulls for example and not at his homegrown Western Province. 20-30 years ago, it was all about playing for your province of birth. That has clearly changed in the modern era. Maybe Moodie couldn’t stay in the cape because at the time the Stormers were broke? Or had too many good players to fit him in? Kistchoff’s sabbatical to Ireland and back had financial benefits. Now they can afford him again (I would guess). What I am getting at is - I think SA Rugby needs to have a very strong strategy around how teams equitably share good youth players out of the youth structures. That is SA’s strong point - a good supply of good players out of our schools and varsities. It doesn’t need to be the spectacle we see out of the states, but a system where SA teams and SA rugby decide on where to draft youth, how to fund this and how to make it that it were possible for a team like the Cheetahs (for example) to end up with a team of young stars and win! This is the investment and thinking that needs to be happening at grassroots to sustain the monster meanwhile being created at the top.
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