Tuesday, September 11, 2007

When Rugby Fans Attack

Sure, soccer houligans have been known to get a little crazy, but you don't often hear about rugby fans throwing down and getting dirty dirty. Especially not against TV reporters. However, that's exactly what happened in Australia during a live broadcast outside of Olympic Park.

Channel 7 sport reporter Ben Davis was tackled to the ground by an inebriated fan during a live cross from the Broncos/Melbourne Storm NRL finals match at Olympic Park.

He had been interrupted several times as four men skylarked in the background – one even tried to stick his tongue in his ear.

"They had been hanging around during the commercial break and I had said to them 'if you want to carry on on national television that is fine; just don't touch me on air'," Davis said last night.

He said he was hit in the head a number of times during the attack, which occurred just after he was taken off air.

"There was about four or five of them, I confronted (one) off air, saying 'I don't come to your workplace and do this' and then his brother and a couple of others came in and hit me in the head a couple of times. We all ended up on the ground."

Davis has wrist and hand cuts.

I've seen numerous people act like jackholes while on live TV, but I don't ever recall seeing the reporter end up scuffling with them. The worst part is that the assailants fled before the police arrived, and police are relying on the video to catch them.



And it's great to see that the cameraman came to his defense. Remind me not to depend on someone who operates a camera in a time of distress.

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