Panthers skipper Petero Civoniceva lashed out at fans at Parramatta Stadium yesterday after being subjected to some of the worst racial abuse in his first grade career.
Civoniceva apologised to surrounding fans after spilling beers over them in his reaction to the taunts, which NRL officials are investigating.
The Queensland prop was reportedly called a “monkey” and told by a group of Eels supporters to “get back in your tree”.
“It was just disappointing,” Civoniceva told Fairfax. “You cop abuse all the time off fans but, fortunately, most people are educated enough not to resort to that sort of stuff.
“There was a group of probably about six guys who started to really have a go at me, and there was a bit of racial stuff said. I took offence to it and my trainers, that were on the sideline at the time, saw everything and heard everything, so they know what happened.
“I’ve been around for a long time and you cop a bit here and there, but I’ve never had anything like that before.
“These guys obviously made a beeline for me and said what they said. I think maybe because I wasn’t taking any notice of them and was ignoring them, they resorted to that stuff.”
Civoniceva apologised to families around the fans after he reacted to the incident, but wanted
“I probably over-reacted a bit,” he said.
“They had their beers on the fence and I sort of swiped at them and spilt their beers all over the place. There were young kids there with their mums and dads and they would have seen that, so I sort of feel bad about that.
“Obviously, I don’t want to scare young kids from coming to the footy, so I’d like to speak to some Parramatta people and especially the young families that were around there and just explain what happened.
“It was just unfortunate that it happened and it would be good if I could explain it, especially to those young families that were sitting there.”
Eels officials apologised to Civoniceva about the incident after the game, which Penrith won 22-16.
