David Warner and his wife have been the subject of vulgar attacks in South Africa. Photo / Getty Images
David Warner and his wife Candice Warner (nee Falzon) have been the subject of ugly taunts during the Australian cricket team's Test tour of South Africa.
And life got more awkward for the Australian vice-captain after rugby star Sonny Bill Williams checked into the same hotel as the Aussie team.
The ugly scenes during the Test series all come back to a tryst that took place more than a decade ago between Williams and Candice.
Candice turned professional as an ironwoman in 1999 aged just 14. Once regarded as the country's best ironwoman she won her first Kelloggs Ironwoman series round when she outclassed the field at Coolum Beach on Queensland's Sunshine Coast in 2012.
She won numerous national titles as a lifesaver before retiring to help raise her and Warner's two daughters.
During the first Test, Warner confronted South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock in a stairwell in Durban after he allegedly made a comment about Candice.
Both players were charged with breaching the code of conduct.
The taunts continued during the second Test in Port Elizabeth when some spectators wore masks of Williams to the ground.
The nasty stunt took a turn when two Cricket South Africa (CSA) officials were photographed alongside some of the fans who were wearing the masks. CSA apologised for the incident but the organiser of the stunt did not.
Speaking to Channel Nine, Mark Dorward said he wouldn't back down unless the Aussie opener admitted he was in the wrong for his confrontation with de Kock.
"It's not about her, it's about David Warner and it's about getting under his skin. We're also not using anything that's false," Dorward said. "If David Warner apologises to (Quinton) de Kock then I will organise a large apology to Candice."
Today the Daily Telegraph reported that Williams, Warner and Candice were staying at the same hotel in Cape Town.
Williams is in South Africa with the Auckland Blues Super Rugby team, which plays the Stormers on Sunday.
The bullying of Candice has stirred debate about the merits of sledging in cricket and cast a dark shadow over the on-field action.
A member of the public used a mobile phone to capture the hook-up between Candice and Williams at the Clovelly Hotel in Sydney's eastern suburbs on a Saturday night in April 2007.
At the time Candice, 22, was an ironwoman and Williams, 21, was playing for the Canterbury Bulldogs in the NRL. Bulldogs players were celebrating their win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs the night before.
The pair met at the establishment where they started dancing and kissing.
A friend of Candice's, Llara Rope, told the ABC the pair were "drunk" and "messy".
Williams' manager at the time Gavin Orr said his client was extremely drunk that night.
"He had been there since 2pm and I know he was really blind,'' Orr said. "I don't know anything about Candice Falzon — all I was told was that Sonny Bill was taken home in a taxi by (teammate) Willie Mason's girlfriend just before midnight.''
According to reports, Williams — who had a girlfriend at the time — allegedly went so far as to buy as many newspapers as he could in his local area so his partner wouldn't find out about his public displays with another woman. He said he was so drunk he couldn't remember the encounter.
"I know it sounds so stupid saying I can't remember," Williams said. "But I can honestly say I don't remember anything."
Shortly after the incident was made public Falzon said: "Nothing happened — it was blown out of proportion." Her then-manager Max Markson said she was "terribly embarrassed" and she later revealed her regret about what transpired.
"I've made a mistake and I'm very, very sorry about it," Falzon said. "I'm conscious of my image as a sportswoman and I've got a responsibility to young people.
"Young girls look up to me."
Speaking to ABC program Australian Story in 2008, Candice said she wasn't thinking about what impact her actions would later have.
"I wasn't in a state where I didn't know what happened, but you don't think of how your actions, when you're drunk, can have an affect on your life," she said.
"You really don't. You are in your own little zone. Although you are conscious of what you're doing, you're not really."
In 2007, Candice said she was using the incident as motivation to perform at a higher level in her sporting career.
"I could have sat down and quit and stopped training ... but I've turned it around and I'm going forward," she said.
"People make mistakes but the thing is you learn from them and move on. You should judge people on how they pick themselves up and move forward from situations."
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph in 2012, she revealed how the constant scrutiny and public pressure drove her to thinking about taking her own life.
"I did get a lot of media attention at a young age and I hadn't had a lot of results," she said. "I think people felt like I didn't deserve the attention. I can understand that — all my intentions ever were to try to promote the sport and try to get ironwoman racing in everyone's mind.
"At a young age, I had this profile and I think people forgot how young I was and they felt they could say whatever they wanted."
Before copping the unwanted attention she has in South Africa, Candice had to deal with the "repulsive" slurs made by people passing her in the street in her own country, which "really cut" her.
But years after the encounter with Williams, she was able to put the storm behind her.
"I have come out the other end. It's not part of my thinking. It's something that happened, that got really out of control in the media," she said in 2012.
"I have come out of it a different and a better person."
Before Australia's second Test against South Africa started, Warner opened up about why he had to be physically retrained by teammates after hearing the "vile" comment de Kock made about his wife.
"I cop it left, right and centre, especially off the field from spectators and I'm used to that and it doesn't bother me," Warner said.
"But in a proximity of my personal space and from behind me, a comment that was vile and disgusting about my wife, and in general about a lady, was quite poor, I felt.
"My emotional response was just something that I don't believe should have been said and I'll always stick up for my family and in that case my teammates as well."
Warner slammed de Kock's cowardly act, accusing him of saying his below-the-belt sledge then trying to pretend as if nothing ever happened.
"I would have liked him to actually say the comment a little bit louder instead of just muttering it under his breath next to me and Tim Paine and then walking up the stairs and saying, 'I didn't say anything' as soon as the rest of his team came out," Warner said.
"At the end of the day, we're all men and if you're going to say something you look at someone in the eye and say it."
"I can't see anyone else make comments the way he made them, which were outright disgusting.
"As I said, it's a thing you wouldn't say about any lady, especially someone's wife or a player's wife."
As a sign of his support, Warner wore tape in the second Test with Candice's name and his children's names written on it. Candice recently celebrated her birthday and Warner posted a loving tribute to his wife on social media.
🖐🏻👏🏻❤️ @CandyFalzon @davidwarner31 #SAVAUS pic.twitter.com/caypSLjrHp
— Ryan Pierse (@RyanPierse) March 11, 2018
View this post on InstagramA post shared by David Warner (@davidwarner31) on
Candice also tweeted her love for her husband and children during the second Test.
My world. ❤️@davidwarner31 pic.twitter.com/xAxZ7aeMSB
— Candice Warner (@CandyFalzon) March 11, 2018
OPINION: Sport, with its fine margins such as this, can be beautiful and brutal.