5:15pm, 26 July 2018

Kurtley Beale has revealed that he was racially abused on his Super Rugby debut in 2007.

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The Australia full-back did not say that the comments were always aimed directly at him, however he did say that he was called a “black c**t”.

The interview was carried out by Headspace, a National Youth Mental Health Foundation. In the interview he revealed that he was struggling with alcoholism during the early stages of his career. In addition to this, Beale spoke openly about how his upbringing has changed how he is now as a man.

I’m a proud indigenous man. My culture is everything to me. Having that there, it certainly allows me to have my own identity and having that connection allows me to grow and gives me the spirit to keep leading my life in the direction I want. It just gives me that strength to keep pushing on through the tough times and allows me to be the person I am.

It’s this kind of upbringing that in many ways could have helped him to overcome this tough stage of his life, where he claims that he had to deal with racism, during his debut in particular

There were instances where I’ve experienced racism. No one knew about it. It was actually my first professional game in South Africa,” Beale said. “At the bottom of a ruck and someone you know has called me a black c***. It was pretty hard to deal with, but whenever I felt that I would just go to my grandparents and they would keep telling to try and use it as a motivation to keep pushing on and keep moving forward in life.

Beale is currently gearing up to take on the Lions this weekend in the Super Rugby semi-final. Furthermore, the Australian talisman will be hoping to play a major role for the Wallabies in August.