Chiefs still haunted by backlash to strippergate
The Chiefs are still feeling the shame of a public backlash to last year’s stripper scandal but are determined to redeem their reputation on the field, assistant coach Andrew Strawbridge says.
A New Zealand Rugby investigation found allegations of sexual assault had not been substantiated but players — described as “far from blameless” — were cautioned after a stripper alleged she was touched roughly during an end of season event.
The club lost sponsors over the incident and drew the public’s ire.
In the final media conference before their Super Rugby semifinal against the Crusaders in Christchurch tonight, assistant coach Andrew Strawbridge seemed keen to create a siege mentality for his side, who are underdogs at AMI Stadium; largely due to the fact they have had to travel back from Cape Town.
The well- publicised stripper scandal, during an end- of- season party last year, created such a backlash against the Chiefs that Strawbridge admitted the franchise was still coming to terms with the impact.
“Honestly, this year has been about looking inwardly,” he said. “We understand how we’re viewed in the country. I think we’re a bunch of reasonable people but we’ve had to look inside ourselves and the family, and I mean the broader family, to galvanise ourselves.”
Asked if the Chiefs were viewed differently following the events of July last year, Strawbridge said: “We are. I’ve read all sorts of things and heard all sorts of things. It doesn’t make us different. We’re still the same reasonable people we’ve always been, I believe.
“We’ve had our challenges. We’ve had to look inside ourselves and understand the way we’ve been viewed and the way we want to portray ourselves. We’ve worked hard to try to make things better.”
The odds are against the Chiefs winning a third title after successes in 2012 and 2013 because of the travel following the quarter- final victory over the Stormers at Newlands, the form of Crusaders, and home advantage for Scott Robertson’s men but Strawbridge said the Chiefs had been written off before, only to surprise.
“Since 2012 no one has expected us to do the business so it’s something we’re used to. We’ve done some reasonably special things in the last six years.”