Sideline antics annoy All Black Help on way for allergy sufferers

Kids need skills to ignore hecklers, writes Katarina Williams.

Booing has no place in sport, according to Hurricanes centurion and six-time All Black captain, Rodney So’oialo.

The 62-cap veteran recently swapped his playing jersey for a suit and tie after accepting a job as forwards coach for the Wellington Lions’ upcoming Mitre 10 Cup campaign.

So’oialo and Wellington Rugby are throwing their weight behind a campaign to boot booing out of rugby games and promote more positive sideline behaviour.

‘‘I’m helping Wellesley College out with their first XV and they’re mostly Year 12 players, and the amount of abuse that comes from the sideline is quite concerning,’’ So’oialo said.

The 37-year-old said there was no question booing set a bad example for children who learn the behaviour from adults.

‘‘You see it all the time. That’s the thing that concerns me. It doesn’t have a place in sport, I feel. That’s my personal opinions towards that.’’

He said jeering adults need to take a long, hard look at themselves and consider what impact their behaviour has on others.

‘‘You need to go there with a better attitude, to support your son or whoever it is . . . instead of more of a negative attitude.’’

So’oialo has spoken to his young players about how to deal with hecklers, encouraging them to stay true to their core values and to persevere.

In his playing days, booing was a constant presence in the game, said So’oialo.

‘‘It was everywhere. You hear and, personally, I don’t like it.’’

So’oialo recalls a match in Ireland where a hush descended over the crowd as kickers lined up their penalty attempts.

‘‘Over there, they respect the kickers … once you get that quiet, it’s like ‘woah’. I really enjoyed that.’’

Last week, the Sunday StarTimes launched a campaign to get stadium announcers to intervene when booing breaks out by asking fans to respect both the players and the referees.

The bosses of several marquee stadiums, including Eden Park, Mt Smart Stadium, QBE Stadium (Albany), FMG Stadium Waikato and AMI Stadium in Christchurch were all on board with the campaign to improve fan behaviour.

However, all say the change needs to be driven by New Zealand Rugby which has the power to get announcers to interject.

Wellington Rugby chief it executive The itchy eyes and dripping sinuses experienced by hundreds of thousands of Kiwi allergy sufferers could soon be a thing of the past.

US researchers are holding out hope of better diagnosis and treatment for allergies of all types — and may even lead to a cure someday.

A team from the Benaroya Research Institute in Seattle has discovered a way to distinguish harmful immune-system cells that trigger allergies from the body’s good immune cells that fight infection.

‘‘My hope is that we might find a drug that will specifically destroy the (bad) cells, or at least stop them,’’ the study’s lead author Erik Wambre told the Seattle Times.

One in five New Zealanders are affected by allergic diseases, Graham Le Gros of Victoria University said, and the cost to the country could run to millions of dollars.

‘‘This is a very interesting advance in trying to pinpoint the cells that cause allergy, and it will help us identify pathways that will help us in treating them.’’

Kimberley Madden-Snoad, whose 15-year-old daughter, Mikayla has suffered issues with allergies since she was 6 months old, said news of the research was ‘‘fantastic’’.

‘‘I know they’ve been telling us there’s a cure coming for a long time and we’re waiting and waiting so always hoping that something is going to work.

‘‘She’s never had a normal life but if she could just join in on social occasions with other people and not have to be afraid when there’s just normal food around.’’

Allergy New Zealand chief executive Mark Dixon said the new research was exciting and encouraging.

‘‘If you have allergies, the thing you’re most desperate for is information and news, and this provides real excitement and hope for people.’’

The possibility of the research leading to a cure was still some time off, and there was still a lot more research and testing needed, he said.

‘‘It’s early days, but it looks credible. We will be watching the next steps with interest,’’ said Dixon.

People with allergies had the allergy-triggering cells, whereas people who were not allergic did not.

That meant scientists should be able to develop a test to identify people at risk of allergies, even in children, he said.

Being able to monitor bad cells in a patient’s blood could show if treatment was working.