{"id":262197,"date":"2025-11-04T15:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T15:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/262197\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T15:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T15:13:11","slug":"rugby-player-responds-to-homophobic-abuse-over-nail-polish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/262197\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby player responds to homophobic abuse over nail polish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian rugby<\/a> player Reece Walsh responded to homophobic abuse from fans while playing against England at Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool<\/a> on Saturday (1 November).<\/p>\n

The Brisbane Broncos fullback, who was temporarily off the field during the match, was targeted by chants and insults directed at his choice to wear nail polish.<\/p>\n

Read next<\/p>\n

The Daily Telegraph<\/a>, present at the game, described the abuse as \u201chorrendous\u201d and said it involved \u201cvile insults no player should have to endure\u201d. The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>, who also covered the match, explained that the crowd specifically focused on Walsh\u2019s nails.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you still a virgin?\u201d \u2013 Reece Walsh responding to homophobic abuse from fans<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a homophobic slur, he was called a b*****d, and they started bagging him around his nails and his nail polish,\u201d wrote The Herald.<\/p>\n

Walsh \u2013 who is straight \u2013 reacted to the harassment with a sharp remark to one of the fans. \u201cHe smiled and turned around, and said to one of the guys who dished out the homophobic slur: \u2018Are you still a virgin?\u2019\u201d the publication added.<\/p>\n

Australia eventually won the game 14-4.<\/p>\n

Walsh, who has a child with former girlfriend Freda Puru, has previously been targeted over nail polish. Last year, he faced online abuse after posting a photo of himself with pink nails on Instagram.<\/p>\n

Who is Reece Walsh?<\/p>\n

The sportsman, born in Southport, Queensland, is of Indigenous Australian and M\u0101ori heritage. He played junior rugby league for the Nerang Roosters and attended Keebra Park State High School, known for producing rugby league talent.<\/p>\n

Walsh made his NRL debut in 2021 with the New Zealand Warriors before returning to the Brisbane Broncos in 2023, quickly establishing himself as one of the league\u2019s most exciting young players.<\/p>\n

He has also been selected for the Queensland State of Origin team and the Australian side for the 2025 Kangaroo tour of England.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian rugby player Reece Walsh responded to homophobic abuse from fans while playing against England at Hill Dickinson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,87238,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-262197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-homophobic-abuse","11":"tag-rugby","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}