Following the punch that he delivered on a suspecting victim early yesterday morning, Tigers five-eighth Benji Marshall has revealed that he was in fact provoked at a McDonalds at the Rocks.
Apparently, it was a group of 8-10 people that baited the Tigers star, with the men allegedly calling him a black c*** and telling him to f*** off back to New Zealand.
Marshall’s manager Martin Tauber, confirmed that Marshall did indeed punch one of them as a result of the racial taunts.
Marshall, who is the new face of league, was given the opportunity to officially launch the 2011 NRL season at Casula.
Lydia Marshall, Benji’s mother, said that the incident had her quite literally, in tears.
‘I just can’t believe it,” she said in tears.
”He’s helping out the community of a country he’s not even from. I’m dumbfounded – it upsets me immensely people could do that.
”It’s not his fault that he’s been put up on that pedestal. How can they do that to him? That’s what they do, they push him and push him and push him so much. They know he’s up there; they’re just waiting for a reaction.
”Why can’t they leave him alone? I just don’t understand. He’s trying to do his best for kids and people with sickness and this is what they do.”
Marshall had attended a black-tie dinner at the illustrious Four Seasons Hotel, which was a fund-raising partnership between Marshall’s foundation and Children’s Cancer Institute of Australia.
”The boy is not at fault,” Tauber said.
‘When you’re baited and racially abused like that – not once, not twice but three times – what else would you do? His girlfriend was with him; there were girls there. To be baited like that, to prove to your mates you have a super ego, is just crazy.”
Where are the laws in Austalia that protect minority groups from racial abuse. to my mine the abuser(s) is as guilty if not more so that Benji.the abuser is happy to hand it out but then go to the police the police when the person he provokes retaliaites. I hate violence of any sort including the sport of boxing but I also understand how proud Benji is of being a Kiwi. Come home Benji and play for the Warriors we love you here and apprieciate what a fine young man you are.
Thanks for the reply Noels.
I guess at this stage, there is no official law as such that outlaws that, and that is a shame.
It just shows the people that are out there, who only want to racially taunt and ridicule people.