Di Patston
Wallabies Business Manager Di Patston has left the Australian Rugby Union, after resigning late on Friday – because of stress related to recent events.
Patston clashed with star back Kurtley Beale and sparked a major controversy over team management.
ARU Chief Executive Bill Pulver said Patston’s departure did not impact on plans for Beale to face a Code of Conduct Tribunal in relation to the distribution of what the ARU considers offensive text messages and images.
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“We maintain the text messages and images were of such an offensive nature that they deserve to be fully and independently investigated, and Kurtley deserves an opportunity to present his position,” Pulver said in a statement.
“We are responding in a way that any organisation should by taking this matter seriously.
“We have a legal and moral obligation in this matter, and we need to ensure the values of our game are upheld. I don’t apologise for that.”
Patston’s resignation followed a sensational press conference Friday when Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie denied having an affair with her.
Patston has been at the centre of controversy involving the Wallabies after Beale was suspended for allegedly clashing verbally with her during a flight from South Africa to Brazil – en route to Argentina – just under a fortnight ago.
Beale has since faced a secondary investigation for allegedly sending inappropriate text messages relating to Patston.
The controversy took an unexpected twist on Friday when McKenzie denied rumours he was in a relationship with Patston.
“I’ve got a professional relationship with her. And I refute that,” McKenzie told reporters, when asked if he had an “intimate” relationship with Patston.
McKenzie, who is married with children, defended Patston’s appointment, which was made during his tenure, and said he did not believe it had caused “angst” in the team.
A date for the tribunal hearing has yet to be set, but is likely to be held in the week after the third Bledisloe Test, the ARU said.
McKenzie complained that the storm over Beale and Patston had “sidetracked” his team’s preparations for next week’s Test against the All Blacks in Brisbane.
The ARU said it will complete a review into the appropriate structure to support the Wallabies, with any changes to be put in place before Australia’s tour to Europe next month.
Pulver said the team will gather in Brisbane on Sunday.
“I have complete faith in our players that they will be focusing on the opportunity to play the number one team in the world next weekend,” the ARU boss said.
“There’s no denying we are the underdogs going into this match, but we have a head coach and team who will come together and work to achieve what some may think is mission impossible.
“We never shy away from a challenge and we have a team of proud, talented and determined professional athletes who are trained to deal with challenges on and off the field and there’s no doubt in my mind they will be focused on the challenge ahead.”
Australian media reports said the situation had become divisive in the Wallabies camp, which is also reeling from last week’s 21-17 defeat – Argentina’s first win in the Rugby Championship.
Beale’s 47-Test career has been dogged by a succession of off-field problems and last year the 25-year-old was forced to undergo counselling and rehabilitation for his struggles with alcohol.
The NSW Waratahs playmaker is off contract for next season and has yet to agree on a new deal with the ARU.
‘Bye Di
Ahhhh the comely Di.
She looks like this isn’t her first rodeo.
😆
Beale is a disgrace
& the “senior players” that support him are seriously misguided
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/oct/13/kurtley-beale-row-content-of-text-messages-with-di-patston-revealed
I think the support that Beale, who appears to be a fool of note, received from his teammates must be seen in the context of what Ashley Copeer has said:
“At the end of the day, it’s important to understand that Kurtley is a teammate and you are always going to get behind a teammate. That’s what you do. You unite”
Must be flippin hard for an “outsider” like Di Patston to survive in such an environment.
@ Angostura:
@ robzim:
I think Kuntley will be the outsider soon enough.
Here are Kurtleys Text’s. (or part of them anyway).
According to the Telegraph’s report, Beale sent photographs of nude, overweight women accompanied by the words “Would you hit it?” and “Di”, and “Di who wants a go f—ing this?”.
Patston then replied: I am sitting here in the team room doing my job and I can’t stop crying. What did I do to you? You have barely known me a day. I can’t stop crying I am so humiliated by this. Don’t you think my job is hard enough without this? This is how the only female staff member is treated? I am so embarrassed by this I am leaving for my room I can’t stop crying thanks a lot.
Beale wrote: I was layin on my bed I didn’t send it to anyone I sent it to myself. Youve done nothing wrong youve been so good to me & your such a lovely lady. We all see how hard you work for us. I just do stupid things for no reason. I was laying here getting ready for lunch & training mucking around. I hate I have done this to you & I am so sorry di.
“ … O’Neill did not single out any player but he had tapped into an intractable stench that attached itself to the Wallabies . . .
It is the stench of a generation of players who have forgotten about the history and significance of the jumper they wear.
Specifically, many point to the self-appointed ”Three Amigos” of Quade Cooper, James O’Connor and Kurtley Beale, all of whom have drifted in and out of the side, in and out of the prized No.10 jumper, and in and out of favour with senior players and coaches and the wider rugby family.
Blame it on alcohol. Blame it on social media. Blame it on Generation Why-The-Hell-Not-Don’t-You-Know-Who-I-Am?
For many fans their ilk is a far cry from the days when the likes of Farr-Jones, Horan, Lynagh, Poidevin, Eales, Burke, Gregan, Larkham, Mortlock and others wore the jumper . . .
When they came into the Wallabies set-up five years ago, Cooper, O’Connor and Beale represented the fresh vanguard of Australian rugby. Young and abundantly talented, they were schoolboy superstars destined for fame and fortune and television advertisements spruiking vitamins while wearing purple pants.
Then O’Connor went AWOL on the morning of the announcement of the squad for the 2011 World Cup, at Sydney Airport, in a major embarrassment for major sponsor Qantas and ARU management. He had been spotted at the Golden Sheaf in Double Bay and The Eastern at Bondi Junction the night before.
Then Cooper made the astonishing public declaration, via Twitter, that he could no longer play in the ”toxic environment” of the Wallabies under Deans – something that stunned his teammates who had seen him miss team meetings and rehab sessions and thumb his mobile phone minutes after soul-destroying international losses.
”We were stunned,” says one senior Wallabies player. ”Because he had been at the centre of the toxicity.”
Then a drunken Beale punched Rebels captain Gareth Delve and teammate Cooper Vuna in Durban – which resulted in a sobering flight home after Vuna revealed the incident on Twitter.
There is no need to trawl through every incident concerning all three players. No need to examine if the burgers really are better at Hungry Jacks. At 4am. Days before a critical Test against the Lions.
Perhaps the most damning episode in the short lives of the Three Amigos came in March this year, when they posted on social media a photo of themselves a day after the Queensland Reds had defeated the Melbourne Rebels. Clad in iridescent speedos, with tattoos and flexed muscles glistening in the sun, Cooper, O’Connor, Beale, former Wallaby Digby Ioane and AFL star Lance ”Buddy” Franklin posed up in a rooftop spa. The ensuing night ended with an associate of Ioane charged with assault . . .”
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/with-amigos-like-these–20130816-2s24k.html#ixzz3G118fTym
88
A Wallabies squad sporting the likes of Kurtley Beale, Quade Cooper, James O’Connor & Digby Ioane would be on a road to oblivion; I don’t believe that “senior players” would have supported Beale’s latest antics if men of good character such David Pocock and Nick Cummins were still in that Wallaby squad.
But hey, who am I to complain if the #4 team in rugby union & one of the Bokke’s perennial rivals wants to self-destruct. Go for it!
@ cane:5
not only is he an idiot, but a bare faced liar.
“Beale wrote: I was layin on my bed I didn’t send it to anyone I sent it to myself. ”
horseshit!
Bad Gilbert.
sheesh… this Beale is a skuzzbucket of note…
it also raises questions about the teammates supporting Beale… would they support him if that was their sister/mother/friend etc…?
seems there is not a lot of respect for women… or integrity… or doing the right thing… in Aus rugby… Just support your mate… no matter what he does… very childish…
Interesting article by old Spiro…
Seems… in his opinion… a lot of this support for Beale is due to the “Wallabies suffering from a ‘me-first’ culture”
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/australia-rugby/wallabies-suffering-from-a-mefirst-culture-20141010-1143e1.html
6 @ Angostura:
Extremely well put Angos
Mitchell mentions the drinking culture of the Aussie players as well, as opposed to the way the AB’s and Boks behave.
The AB’s have had incidents, but consider how Hansen handled the Cruden incident as opposed to how McKenzie handled Beale, chalk and cheese.
No senior All Blacks made a song and dance about how they want Cruden there and how they still support him etc.
He did the crime, he did his time, no questions asked and no issue of they needed him, although they did suffer because of his absence.
There is no way the current Bok squad will behave in this manner, and it has nothing to do with the bible as previously brought up during a similar conversation, it has to do with respect. I firmly believe the young (and senior ) Bok players have too much respect for Heyneke and his coaching staff and their ethos, and also they have respect for others as well.
Beale is, as I mentioned when the fight on the plane issue broke, an idiot, and as UFO mentioned, you can add skuzzbucket to the list as well
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