Streakers are going to get hurt soon

Today, security guards react like the Secret Service around the President.

IT TAKES a bit of a nudge for me to agree with traditional values lobby group Family First on many things, but I agree with their push to have the female streaker from Saturday's All Blacks game charged.

The game is different today. Streaking used to have the embarrassment factor, the pyschology of shaming oneself, breaching social taboos, and making a spectacle at the same time. It had a certain element of bravery.

On the odd occasion, you do see streakers at non-professional games, but it's pretty rare. The novelty appears to be saved for events which guarantee you media coverage and a vast crowd.

The thing is, it's become a dangerous thing to do.

The intensity of an All Black match means these days only professionals can step out on the grass with absolute confidence of being able to handle that environment. And that degree of intensity translates downwards - to the behaviour of officials, to the actions of security guards.

Everyone is going to react to an extreme level to a security issue - such as a streaker coming on the field.

I can remember the famous photo, in the seventies at Twickenham, I think, of a policeman covering the genitals of a streaker with one of those old-fashioned police helmets.

Everyone looks reasonably genial about the situation.

Today, security guards react like the Secret Service around the President. You're going to get tackled really hard, as we've already seen. In some photos, Napier streaker Rose Kupa looks like she's getting coat-hangered.

Sooner or later, a streaker is going to get badly hurt.

You won't get any sympathy from me. If you want to streak, strip off and run down a main street if you need to get it out of your system - or off your "bucket list", as I believe was the case with Kupa.

The All Blacks - and any sporting team - deserve to have 80 minutes of absolute focus on the game, and feel completely safe doing so. New Zealand shouldn't be at the level of having 2m-high chain-link fences around the perimeter, like in England. Streakers are thankfully rare, and the mentality may be light-hearted, but the game has moved on.