Andre Savelio “won’t sit quietly” after racism allegation
Referee James Child placed the first-half incident on report after Savelio said he had heard a racist comment, and when asked to name the player by the official he alleged it was Wigan’s Tony Clubb.
New Zealand-born Savelio did not mention Clubb by name as he took to social media after the match to give his version of events, but said he hopes the incident is “dealt with”.
He tweeted: “Listen there’s no reason at all for me to lie, I didn’t report it initially as I was going to deal with it myself the next time we came into contact, he got taken off after and never came back on.
“For him to call me a ‘stupid Polynesian c***’ in a game where 30 per cent are of that heritage, hell I won’t sit quietly.
“I’ve seen these things happen enough to know most of the time there’s never enough proof on these – but I swear it on my mum’s… I’m just hopeful a camera or microphone clocked it and it’s dealt with.”
— Dre Savelio (@AndreSavelio) April 29, 2021
Earlier on Thursday, rugby league had stated its intentions to join the sporting boycott of social media platforms over the Bank Holiday weekend in a bid to tackle online discrimination and abuse.
Wigan coach Adrian Lam says he will reserve comment until the club get to the bottom of allegations, which come ahead of a weekend when most clubs are set to join a social media blackout to help combat racist abuse.
Lam said: “I got the news, but I have no comment at the moment until we get to the bottom of what the allegation actually is. As a club, we will follow protocol and see how it unfolds in the next 24 hours.
“It’s a hard one to comment on when I don’t know what has actually been said or what the allegation is.”
Hull coach Brett Hodgson was also reluctant to say too much until the club had all the facts.
He said: “I don’t know too much to be honest. We will just have to wait and see. It is very disappointing.”
The alleged incident overshadowed what had been a hard-fought encounter which finished with Wigan ending Hull’s unbeaten start to the Betfred Super League season with a 16-14 victory.
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