White apologises to Owen Farrell for Loftus booing

Bulls director of rugby, Jake White, has apologised to Saracens captain Owen Farrell for the booing he received from the Loftus Versfeld crowd during their Champions Cup clash on Saturday night.

The Bulls came out on top against the England-laden Saracens, beating them 27-16 in Pretoria, the victory being a historic one for the Bulls as it was their first-ever competitive match against the English giants.

The perfect night for the Bulls was marred by the heckling of Farrell every time he stepped up to the kicking tee, attempted a drop goal or fluffed a kick for touch.

The Loftus faithful did not show any sympathy towards Farrell, who recently announced he was taking a break from playing for England to look after his mental health.

‘Sorry for booing’

After the game, White opened his post-match press conference with an apology to Farrell for the treatment he received.

“I’m apologising for all the booing towards Owen Farrell, it’s not who we are about,” said White, with a sad tone.

“I don’t understand why people are doing it. I think people jumped on the bandwagon in terms of all the negative media and whatever, which I don’t understand. I want to apologise, it’s not who we are, we will address that,” he said.

What hurt White about the behaviour of the Loftus crowd is how they did not appreciate a player of Farrell’s calibre, who will go down as one of the greats to play the game when it’s all said and done.

“I said it in the week, he’s an unbelievable rugby player, what he’s achieved in England is phenomenal,” he said.

“I’m really disappointed because I want people to enjoy the fact that people get to see him play at Loftus. You equate that to watching Tiger Woods playing golf or watching Michael Jordan play basketball.

Rugby behind other sports

When speaking to the media on Friday, the 2007 Rugby World Cup winning coach said rugby was still behind compared to other sporting codes in how to help players who are struggling with mental health and other addictions.

“Rugby union is still far behind other codes in professional sport. We haven’t scrapped the top of the surface in terms of players who struggle mentally, or with gambling and alcoholic issues. All these other sports codes have gone through that,” White said.