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Former Knights fullback Robbie O’Davis says Timana Tahu was regularly racially abused during his six NRL seasons at Newcastle.
Speaking in the current issue of Rugby League Week magazine, on sale today, O’Davis applauds Tahu’s stance and says the 29-year-old dual international was not the only one of his former Newcastle teammates subjected to racial slurs while at the Knights.
Now a Knights director, O’Davis suggested a racist attitude within the club forced former Australian Schoolboys star Owen Craigie to leave the Knights in 1999.
Tahu pulled out of the NSW Origin team last Friday in response to racist comments NSW assistant coach and former Knights captain Andrew Johns made about Queensland centre Greg Inglis in Tahu’s presence at a Blues bonding session.
Johns, who has since quit as Blues assistant coach, referred to Inglis as a ‘‘black c---’’ but Tahu has since indicated his former NSW and premiership-winning Knights captain made offensive comments ‘‘directed at various races’’.
‘‘Timana has heard all this before and has had it said to his face a heap of times,’’ O’Davis tells the magazine.
‘‘It went on and really affected Owen Craigie’s career at the Knights, even to the point where the remarks aimed at him forced him to get out of the club.
‘‘And Timana has copped a lot because of the colour of his skin over the years too and he thought, ‘That’s it, I’m going to take a stand’.
‘‘Timana is very passionate about his heritage and he has decided to stand his ground on something that he has probably heard too much of.’’
Tahu played 97 NRL games for the Knights between 1999 and 2004. He and Johns and O’Davis were teammates in Newcastle’s 2001 grand final victory over Parramatta, and all were named in 2007 in the Knights’ 20-year ‘‘Team of the Era’’.
At a media conference earlier yesterday, Knights chief executive Steve Burraston insisted there was no evidence of a racist culture at the club.
Burraston said the Knights had a proud history of embracing players of Aboriginal and Polynesian heritage, and conducted many club and community programs promoting indigenous health, education and rugby league talent development.
Speaking in the current issue of Rugby League Week magazine, on sale today, O’Davis applauds Tahu’s stance and says the 29-year-old dual international was not the only one of his former Newcastle teammates subjected to racial slurs while at the Knights.
Now a Knights director, O’Davis suggested a racist attitude within the club forced former Australian Schoolboys star Owen Craigie to leave the Knights in 1999.
Tahu pulled out of the NSW Origin team last Friday in response to racist comments NSW assistant coach and former Knights captain Andrew Johns made about Queensland centre Greg Inglis in Tahu’s presence at a Blues bonding session.
Johns, who has since quit as Blues assistant coach, referred to Inglis as a ‘‘black c---’’ but Tahu has since indicated his former NSW and premiership-winning Knights captain made offensive comments ‘‘directed at various races’’.
‘‘Timana has heard all this before and has had it said to his face a heap of times,’’ O’Davis tells the magazine.
‘‘It went on and really affected Owen Craigie’s career at the Knights, even to the point where the remarks aimed at him forced him to get out of the club.
‘‘And Timana has copped a lot because of the colour of his skin over the years too and he thought, ‘That’s it, I’m going to take a stand’.
‘‘Timana is very passionate about his heritage and he has decided to stand his ground on something that he has probably heard too much of.’’
Tahu played 97 NRL games for the Knights between 1999 and 2004. He and Johns and O’Davis were teammates in Newcastle’s 2001 grand final victory over Parramatta, and all were named in 2007 in the Knights’ 20-year ‘‘Team of the Era’’.
At a media conference earlier yesterday, Knights chief executive Steve Burraston insisted there was no evidence of a racist culture at the club.
Burraston said the Knights had a proud history of embracing players of Aboriginal and Polynesian heritage, and conducted many club and community programs promoting indigenous health, education and rugby league talent development.
