Streaker exposed more than just himself

Recall if you will, those glorious moments immediately after Taranaki first won the showpiece of New Zealand provincial rugby in 2014.

The joyous crowd spilled onto the turf at Yarrow Stadium to celebrate with their team and the scenes of the province’s heroes swamped in a sea of amber and black were broadcast around the country and the world.

It was hailed as a return to the way rugby was in the good old days. It’s a shame we won’t get a repeat of those scenes this season, with our lads bundled out by a deserving Tasman side on Sunday. But even while there was nothing much to celebrate, a pitch invasion of a different sort certainly captured people’s attention.

Streaker Charl Jacobs’ decision to strip down to his socks and take to a field he had no business being on was a regrettable one and resulted in him being banned from the stadium for two years.

The reaction most readily observed so far is that the streak was a lighthearted moment of fun, and on face value that’s understandable. There’s nothing about streaking at a sports game that is in itself that terrible.

Unfortunately though, Jacobs’ ability to breach security at the ground will attract attention from those who make the decisions to bring the big sporting occasions to Taranaki.

There’s an All Black test scheduled against Argentina at the ground next season and you can bet there will be some explaining to do to New Zealand rugby bosses.

And that’s fair enough too. Because not everybody who would get themselves onto the field is out for a bit of a giggle. Sporting history is full of occasions when crowd interactions have gone horribly wrong.

Remember when a drunk Springboks fan jumped onto the field and attacked the referee during a Tri Nations test match in 2002? Or, at the 2003 World Cup when a drunk Samoan fan ran onto the pitch tackling a goalkicker attempting a shot at goal?

No-one in their right minds would condone those actions, and they’re only at the low end of the scale when you look at some of the serious violence that has broken out between spectators and players in other sports around the globe.

The only way to stop this kind of thing is to stop people who shouldn’t be on the field from getting there. The only way to do that is to have strict security measures in place. Strict security comes at a cost, and people are all too quick to grizzle at the price of tickets.

The actions of Jacobs, amusing though they may be, need to be punished as a deterrent, and if a two year ban from Yarrow isn’t enough to put future streakers off, perhaps it needs to be longer.

People love to point the finger and blame the fun police. But nobody should blame Taranaki Rugby for looking to stamp such behaviour out. The only thing they’re guilty of is trusting the crowd to behave like adults.

If in future it again becomes much tougher for fans and players to mingle on the pitch at Yarrow, we have only people like Jacobs to blame. Ryan Evans Editor