The text messages which led to Kurtley Beale being stood down by the Wallabies have been made public.
Beale faces a disciplinary hearing this week after it was alleged he sent offensive text messages to the team’s business manager, Di Patston.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Beale sent a photo of an overweight, nude woman labelled “Di”. Further texts said: “Di who wants a go fucking this?”. It is alleged Beale meant to send the texts to team-mates but also sent them to Patston in error.
According to the Telegraph, Patston replied: “I am sitting here in the team room doing my job and I can’t stop crying. What did I do to you? You have barely known me a day. I can’t stop crying I am so humiliated by this. Don’t you think my job is hard enough without this? This is how the only female staff member is treated?”
Beale then allegedly wrote back apologising: “I was layin on my bed I didn’t send it to anyone I sent it to myself. Youve done nothing wrong youve been so good to me & your such a lovely lady. We all see how hard you work for us. I just do stupid things for no reason.”
Patston eventually called an end to the exchange, the Telegraph reported, saying: “Let’s move on from this and start anew. No need to talk about it any further.”
According to the Telegraph, Patston agreed not to make the exchange public in return for certain agreements being kept. Whether the details of the texts came out when these promises were broken is unclear.
The Wallabies coach, Ewen McKenzie, claimed he did not find out about the texts until Beale and Patston were involved in an argument on a flight earlier this month. However, Beale’s agent, Isaac Moses, says McKenzie and Beale had spoken about the texts incident at the time.
“I can’t go into detail [due to this week’s hearing], but information I have suggests a conversation did take place between Ewen and Kurtley with regard to the text message issue,” Moses told Fairfax Media on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Wallabies vice-captain, Adam Ashley-Cooper, said Beale has the support of his team-mates.
“It’s been a tough week for him,” said Ashley-Cooper. “But I have spoken to Kurtley a number of times and he’s hanging in there. He’s doing well and he’s staying positive, which pleases me. I’m feeling for Kurtley. I’m feeling for a mate. I’m feeling for a team-mate and I share those feelings on behalf of the rest of the team.”
The Wallabies are having a tough time on the field too. They lost to Argentina in the previous round of the Rugby Championship, and face the All Blacks this weekend.
