‘Excessive drinking’: Men’s sevens team, Olyroos accused of misbehaving on flight

Rugby Australia is investigating allegations of bad behaviour from the Australian men’s sevens team on a rowdy flight home from the Tokyo Olympics that also could land members of Australia’s under-23 men’s football team — the Olyroos — in hot water.

It comes as Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Matt Carroll revealed what was alleged to have occured on the rowdy flight home from the Games.

The rugby sevens team is being investigated.Credit: Getty Images

Sources say a number of players were heavily intoxicated and that vomit was left in a bathroom on the plane following a long drinking session.

AOC chief executive Matt Carroll was interviewed by Sunrise on Wednesday morning and went into further detail about the “excessive drinking” episode.

“It was bad behaviour,” Carroll said. “Drinking in the aisles, [not] following instructions, athletes were saying they were drinking and that’s why they weren’t wearing their mask. That’s not good enough, particularly [because it was] keeping people up late at night. There were other Australians returning on that flight ... it’s not the standard the Australian Olympic Committee expects and not the standard the sports expect too.

“There were nine sports involved, so I called the chief executives in on Sunday morning, gave them a briefing, asked them to investigate their other athletes and officials. The sports came back to me over the course of Sunday and Monday.

“I know what happened, but I don’t know who. That’s why I asked the sports themselves, the CEOs, who are very upset about it as you would expect and very displeased with their athletes.”

Carroll had received reports from RA chief executive Andy Marinos and Football Australia boss James Johnson taking full responsibility for unacceptable behaviour from some athletes in the men’s rugby sevens and men’s soccer teams.

RA is speaking to players and staff from the men’s program, who are quarantining in Sydney, about what occurred on the flight. The governing body had little information on Tuesday evening.

Senior rugby officials are extremely frustrated by the allegations of unruly behaviour on the flight, however, there is some conjecture as to whether it was the rugby players or Olyroos who left vomit in the bathroom.

Players were understood to be loud and obnoxious, while sources say there could be issues identifying those at fault because the athletes were required to wear masks on the 10-hour flight home.

The flight departed Tokyo on Thursday night and landed in Sydney on Friday.

Australia’s men’s rugby team had a disappointing campaign after being knocked out in the quarter-finals by Fiji, following losses to Argentina and New Zealand. The team’s only victory in the pool stages came against South Korea.

RA issued a statement on Tuesday night about the allegations and will have more facts in the next 24 hours.

“Rugby Australia has been made aware of incidents involving the Australian men’s sevens program after being informed by the Australian Olympic Committee,” the statement read.

“Rugby Australia has begun its own internal investigation into the matter based on the information provided by the AOC.

“Rugby Australia expects the highest standards of all its employees, modelling the values of our game – respect, integrity, passion and teamwork.”

RA will wait for a report before handing down sanctions, if they are needed.

A spokesperson said Football Australia was investigating the matter.

“Football Australia is aware of reports regarding unacceptable behaviour of some athletes on board a flight from Tokyo to Sydney last Friday,” the spokesperson said.

“Football Australia is discussing the matter with the AOC and is taking the responsibility to investigate the involvement of any footballers.”

The allegations come after the men’s rowing and men’s rugby teams left a hole in the wall at the athletes’ accommodation while the two teams apologised to the AOC after cleaners had to mop up vomit and clean rooms that were left in an unacceptable state.

The AOC took no action over the wall damage, saying it was “easy to do”.

Sources have told the Herald and The Age that while rooms were left in a poor state, the hole in the wall occurred in a room that was being used as a team and physio space.

Two years ago, then RA boss Raelene Castle wrote an apology letter to World Rugby after the game’s governing body expressed concerns about the behaviour of some members of the Wallabies set-up, including head coach Michael Cheika, at the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

Members of the Japanese organising committee who were upset about the Australians’ behaviour conveyed their concerns about the attitude of some within the Wallabies group to World Rugby.

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