All Blacks player Aaron Smith has been sent home from the team’s tour of South Africa, after being caught out by a witness presumably having sex in a disabled toilet at Christchurch Airport, Sydney Morning Herald reports. While that would be questionable behaviour for a player at best, there's more – the woman he was with was very clearly not his partner Teagan Voykovich.
The incident allegedly took place in mid-September after the All Blacks' test against South Africa. While the team was at the airport, an unnamed witness saw Smith, in his team’s travel uniform, walking into a unisex disabled cubicle after a woman had already entered moments earlier.
The witness was taking her young son to the bathroom, waiting outside the cubicle, and stood aside for the young woman involved in the indiscretion to enter the toilet – before Smith swiftly joined her. He then left the cubicle first, straightening up his clothing, while the woman exited 30 seconds later. Smith then apparently head back to his teammates, all the while casually greeting fans at the airport.
While the All Blacks are set to clash with the Springboks this weekend for the final Rugby Championship, Smith learned he would not be competing upon arrival in Durban, and would serve a one-match ban. Coach Steve Hansen held a press conference, revealing he had questioned the rugby star about the incident, who copped to his indiscretion and accepted his behaviour was not appropriate.
"As a result of that the leadership group met and were unanimous in the fact that behaviour wasn't acceptable and as a consequence a one match suspension would be put in place,” Hansen said. "Clearly Aaron is bitterly disappointed with his behaviour and feels he has let the team down but just as importantly feels he is bitterly disappointed in letting his family and partner down.” At his own request, Smith was sent home to deal with the personal issues arising from the incident.
The unnamed woman that reported on the controversy was particularly upset by Smith’s behaviour. "Most people would not do that, let alone a public figure," she said. She was clear that the behaviour was not befitting of a rugby role model: "they get paid more money than any other athlete, they're household names and they're on the Weetbix boxes for God's sake."
Smith’s history of sexual indiscretions is well-known, having been broken up with by a former girlfriend of two years for sleeping with escort Lisa Lewis, and also sending nudes over Snapchat, which were later published online. With officials having to start "conducting independent review of respect and responsibility in [the] professional player environment", and following recent reports about the Chiefs players' alleged assault on a stripper post-season, it seems very likely this is probably not the last sex scandal we'll see happening in the rugby world.
