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Crusaders star faces fresh allegations of inappropriate touching and spitting beer at woman in Cape Town
Crusaders and All Blacks first-five Richie Mo’unga is facing allegations from a Cape Town woman that he spat beer and touched her and her friends inappropriately at a bar in Cape Town over the weekend.
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These fresh allegations have surfaced in the wake of separate allegations of homophobic behaviour made by a Cape Town man against up to three Crusaders players at a McDonald’s following the Crusaders’ 19-all draw with the Stormers on Saturday, although head coach Scott Robertson claims star wing George Bridge was the only individual involved in a “selfie gone wrong”.
The woman and her friends were at Arcade bar in Cape Town on Saturday night when she said the incident took place, according to a report from Radio New Zealand.
“We got there and we noticed, I was actually telling my friends, these guys they look like New Zealanders, they look like either All Blacks or something,” she said.
“My friends and I were just standing, talking and then we just had… a lot of beer being spat at us and we looked and then my friend and I were shocked at what was happening, I told the guy ‘look here, that’s not okay, you don’t do that’ and he just flat out ignored us and walked away, he looked at us with a dead stare and just walked away.”
She claims a ‘friend’ of the player who spat on the group apologised to the woman and her friends, before they continued to dance.
“And then I noticed the guy behind me, and then he like pinched me on my bum and then as I was going to retaliate, my friend was like ‘no don’t, it’s not worth it’, leaving him and he just also had that like dead look on his face, he had no reaction…carried on partying, everything.”
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The group then decided to leave the bar because the woman said, “we were over it”.
“They clearly had no respect for anyone at that place, normally Arcade’s the place where we go to unwind and have fun with one another, but that was the worst experience so far.”
It wasn’t until the next day, after looking at an interview with the Sport Science Institute of South Africa, when the woman realised that the man at the bar was Mo’unga.
“I noticed this guy look really familiar, because it was an interview, and I told my friends ‘look… this guy’s from Arcade’.”
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Her friend also agreed that it was Mo’unga who was the man they had encountered the night beforehand.
“It is this guy because he has the exact same haircut, anyone can tell me yes it was dark, no I will never forget that face, I will never forget that face.”
The woman proceeded to message Mo’unga via Instagram to call him out for spitting on her and her friends.
A screenshot of the message suggests that Mo’unga acknowledged and apologised for the incident, saying he should have left well before everything happened.
“I’m really sorry for that I’m not aware that I did that,” he said.
“Obviously was intoxicated and should’ve gone home long before that stage, I’m sorry to you and your friends and want to assure you I don’t condone that behaviour and am sorry about that.”
The woman told RNZ it was the worst experience she’s had: “I’ve never been in such a position, I’ve never been violated, so for me it’s a first and I don’t know what to do.”
She said she decided to speak out about the incident after hearing about the allegations made against Crusaders players during the altercation at the McDonald’s outlet in Cape Town.
“I just feel like something needs to be done because, like I said, this is something small thing, it might be miniscule thing but then he does it again and he’s drunk and he does it again and it’s something way worse and that person maybe actually commits suicide or does something way worse than what I did, and then it’s another story.
“We always say ‘cut the bad while you can’.”
The Crusaders arrived back in Christchurch on Monday night ahead of their clash with the Blues on Saturday.
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