Rugby Defeat Fails To See Rise in Family Violence

The poor performance of the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup has not caused a visible increase in levels of domestic or family violence says Women’s Refuge Chief Executive Merepeka Raukawa-Tait.

Raukawa-Tait said her organisation had been closely monitoring the impact of the All Black’s performance on levels of family violence but no increase had resulted.

“Thankfully men have kept their fists at their sides,” she said.

Raukawa-Tait said while there had been an increase in women seeking beds in the Auckland region this was again not due to the failure of the All Blacks.

She said there did exist a relationship between sporting failure and levels of violence against women although in New Zealand this tended to surround games of rugby league and was a localised problem. She had not seen any increase in violence following the Kiwi league team losing to Australia over the weekend.

Raukawa-Tait said the early hour of the All Black matches largely removed the alcohol factor which was often behind incidents of domestic violence.

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