Rugby League: Sex scandal spirals with more allegations

11.45am - By GREG TOURELLE

SYDNEY - The National Rugby League season will have its official launch with a glittering cocktail party in Sydney tomorrow, but the drinks are likely to be flat.

For the code is in crisis, with the Canterbury Bulldogs sex scandal dominating national headlines around Australia for the past week.

Since a 20-year-old woman was found sobbing near the swimming pool at a Coffs Harbour hotel and taken to hospital, rugby league's administrators have found themselves dealing with an issue out of control.

The woman alleged six Bulldogs players staying at the hotel sexually assaulted her on Sunday, February 21. The detail in the police report was explicit enough: for "sexual assault" read "gang rape".

The Bulldogs have been on the defensive, the players' managers -- and they all have them -- saying that if there was sex it was consensual.

The players were told not to talk to the media, but by Sunday it seemed they had refused, countering the woman's allegations with their own, and at the same time admitting there were wild parties and group sex during their stay at Coffs Harbour.

The players refused to be identified in interviews with the Sun-Herald newspaper but said the woman first came to the team's attention on the Wednesday night before their pre-season game with Canterbury on the Saturday.

They said she had sex with eight Bulldog players that night at their hotel. They said she was encouraging group sex and boasting about it.

They said she had consensual sex with one player on the Saturday night and was ignored by others around 7am when she tried to lure them into the swimming pool.

"Everyone told her to go away and wanted nothing to do with her. I don't what happened to make her so hysterical," one player told the paper."

One player said the Wednesday was just a typical night for the Canterbury players.

"Some of the players just love a 'bun' (woman who engages in group sex). Gang banging is nothing new for our club or the rugby league."

Those comments have infuriated both NRL chief David Gallop and Canterbury Bulldogs boss Steve Mortimer, though the latter refused to believe them

Gallop said he was disgusted by the "gang-banging" comment and was extending the NRL's inquiry into the gang rape allegation to investigate the remark.

Mortimer said: "The players have categorically denied talking to the media and, as CEO, I have to believe them. I am not acknowledging the accuracy of the story, but things in the article I would never, ever condone."

Gallop and Mortimer must be apoplectic about the fresh scandal. They had to deal with something similar at the same time last year when a 42-year-old woman alleged a Bulldog player had non-consensual sex with her while other players watched -- again at Coffs Harbour. The case was dropped for lack of evidence.

And two years ago Christchurch police questioned players from Sydney's Cronulla club after a complaint by a female hotel worker. No charges were laid.

The NRL clubs have been at pains to avoid such incidents as the Coffs Harbour ones, in some case holding seminars lecturing players on avoiding dangerous situations -- which would include avoiding young women eager to flirt with NRL players. Security guards often accompany teams to hotels.

While such allegations happen in other sporting codes too, the repeat nature in rugby league is earning it a heap of bad publicity and nervousness among sponsors. And the attitude of Bulldog players, smearing the reputation of the alleged victim when told by their bosses not to, only serves to make it worse.

Former St George captain Mark Coyne said problems occur because today's players lived in an unreal world.

"They are idolised but they live in a fishbowl environment. They are unique to themselves. They get A$100,000 to A$250,000 a year to play sport. It's a fantastic lifestyle but it's not close to the real world," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"The modern player must realise that if does things outside normal behaviour -- and the allegations against the Bulldogs indicate this is well outside those limits - he will get picked on."

There's been plenty also said on talkback and rugby league websites about the (mostly) young women who throw themselves at footballers, desperate to boast to their friends that they have "scored" with an NRL player.

But criminologist Kerry Carrington said when it came to situations of group sex in the professional sporting world, it was the men who had the choice.

"Whenever it comes to negotiating sexual relations, young women are always vulnerable. It's a sexual encounter of power, particularly when you have got multiples. Say a woman in that position was forced to consent, it's still not consent."

The police investigation into the Coffs Harbour incident is continuing, with suggestions that the entire team may be asked to undergo DNA tests. Police wouldn't confirm today how many would be asked but requested people to stop the rumours and guesswork about the incident.

"All this speculation is very disturbing and it can contaminate evidence, which we don't want to happen," Coffs Harbour Acting Superintendent Matt Sponberg said today.

But, with the NRL and the Bulldogs also conducting their own investigations, and a media hungry for more, the speculation will continue.

Gallop, who oversaw a successful 2003 NRL season after the initial Bulldog sexual assault complaint, must have been hoping sufficient measures were in place to put an end to the sex scandals.

He said today the league's education and welfare committee had been instructed to investigate the protocol in place at all clubs for away team matches.

"We are not in a position to control individual choices but I am calling on our clubs and players, and particularly the senior people in those organisations, to focus on their responsibilities as role models in football and the community."

- NZPA