Sydney (AFP)

Australia coach Dave Rennie on Friday dismissed the idea of ​​his team kneeling before their third game against the All Blacks, explaining that the players, who are already paying tribute to the Aboriginal community through the motives of their jersey, did not want to mix political messages.

Australian player Dane Haylett-Petty this week raised the possibility that the Wallabies would make the gesture of support for the "Black Lives Matter" movement ahead of their third Bledisloe Cup test match against New Zealand on October 31 in Sydney, which will serve as the opening match of the Rugby Championship.

But Dave Rennie said it would distract from the tribute the selection is already paying to Indigenous people through their jersey designs, which are inspired by the art of Australia's Indigenous and "First Nations" people. .

“No, we won't,” Rennie said at an online press conference.

"The important thing is the tribute to the indigenous people and that's what we want to focus on."

"Everyone has an opinion on the other issues, but we from our side want the emphasis to be on reflecting on our own history and our past."

"We do not want a political position," he continued.

"We met the team leaders, we met the rest of the team and the decision was unanimous."

After a draw (16-16) in the first test match in Wellington and a rout (27-7) in the second at Eden Park in Auckland, Australia will seek to save the honor in the third match on its ground.

- standard of living gap -

The kneeling was adopted by former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016, to protest against police violence against blacks.

This had earned him insults from Donald Trump a few months later, and ultimately cost him his career.

The gesture was widely repeated this year in support of the "Black Lives Matter" movement in the wake of the death of George Floyd, asphyxiated during his arrest on May 25 in Minneapolis.

This movement has also found an echo in Australia, with demonstrations to denounce the deaths of Aborigines during police custody, or the overrepresentation of Aborigines within the prison population.

Successive Australian governments have all failed to close the gap in living standards between Aborigines and other Australians, a reality Prime Minister Scott Morrison again called "national disgrace" in February.

The idea of ​​the Wallabies kneeling had been strongly criticized by their illustrious elder Nick Farr-Jones, captain of the 1991 world champions, who said that mixing sport and politics could be frowned upon by supporters.

He added that he didn't think discrimination was a major issue for Australia, a statement that knocked his former teammate Gary Ella, who is of aboriginal descent, off the hook and spoke of "stupid" words. .

© 2020 AFP