All Black halfback TJ Perenara has responded publicly to complaints after he took to social media following the All Blacks 27-13 loss to France in Paris to call out “everyone talking sh**”.
The 83 Test halfback defended the national side by posting a video on social media where he told certain fans to “shush” because “you’ve never been in the arena”.
The No 9 predicted that the All Blacks would be back, along with the New Zealand Warriors and UFC fighter Israel Adesanya, who all ended up in defeat on the same weekend.
“Obviously been a tough week for sport here in New Zealand,” Perenara said on a video posted to social media.
“But everyone talking sh**, firstly shush, you’ve never been in the arena.
“And secondly this is the time we need to get behind our teams and our athletes.
“Izzy [Israel Adesanya] will be back, the Wahs [Warriors] will be back, and the ABs [All Blacks] will be back.”
After blowback from Kiwi fans who thought that the message was “disrespectful” to the supporters of the All Blacks, Perenara responded with a second video to clarify his intentions.
“Now my message wasn’t to be disrespectful to the New Zealand public,” Perenara clarified in a second video.
“It’s aimed at the people abusing our teams and athletes online.
“But other people shared a similar opinion to Mark and it got me thinking, so many people support and love our game, but do we know the game as much as we actually think we do.
“So if you have any opinions or critiques on what the team can do going forward let me know.
“I’m geniunely interested to see what knowledge is out there and if I think any of it is valid.”
