Why animal rights activists are trying to force the NRL's biggest team to change their name and DUMP their game-day mascot

Animal rights activists have sensationally called for Brisbane - the NRL 's biggest team - to immediately change their name and also dump their long-serving game-day mascot, Buck the horse.
Representatives from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), believe a better name is the Brisbane Boomerangs, as it acknowledges the club's Indigenous talent dating back to 1988 as well as being a commitment to equality.
PETA also hold that view the name Broncos 'glorifies rodeos' and they would be better suited with a human mascot decked out in club colours.
'Unlike real horses, the human inside the Buck costume can consent to running around a field in front of screaming fans, and no one is sitting on their back,' Senior Campaigns Advisor to PETA Australia, Mimi Bekhechi said.
'Aside from the odd dry cleaning, Buck the costumed character doesn't need anywhere near the level of care a real horse does.
'Removing the 'real' Buck from the field is the best 'conversion' the Broncos could make.'
Representatives from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), believe a better name is the Brisbane Boomerangs, as it acknowledges the club's Indigenous talent dating back to 1988 (pictured, star prop Payne Haas)
Meanwhile, respected footy commentator Warren Smith has called for the likes of Kobe Hetherington and Jordan Riki to take their games to a new level - and fast.
'Other than Payne Haas and Pat Carrigan, I think they are just missing running metres,' the Fox League identity said.
'Jordan Riki has been much quieter than in seasons past....and with Kobe Hetherington in that 13 role, they seem to lack a bit of punch at times through the middle.'
Smith does feel Ezra Mam will be a welcome inclusion in the halves after serving his nine-game NRL suspension as Adam Reynolds and Ben Hunt are too similar players in his eyes.
Earlier this week, Broncos legend Gorden Tallis stated on NRL 360 Carrigan 'isn't big enough' to be playing prop, preferring he plays at lock.
On Sunday, Michael Maguire's men - who have lost four of their past five games - take on the Dragons at Suncorp Stadium.
Another defeat will see Brisbane drop out of the top eight - the last thing they need at Red Hill with the Origin period looming.

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Times

29 minutes ago

• Times

From Guscott's drop-goal to battered sausage on sticks: My ten Lions tours

Lions lost 4-0Coach Jim TelferTour captain Ciaran FitzgeraldBest Lions Peter Winterbottom, John Rutherford The last of the heroic long tours, which went on for ever. New Zealand was shut. It was ghastly murder in the Test series, with the Lions captain Ciaran Fitzgerald soon dubbed 'Captain Clanger', but there were endearing visits to a raft of one-horse towns via a hired Ford Anglia. The rugby was awful but nothing could ever be so bad as flogging round a windy old country seated in a creaky Fokker Friendship propellered Airfix model. Won 2-1Coach Ian McGeechanTour captain Finlay CalderBest Lions Mike Teague, Jeremy Guscott Rough. And tumble. In the era before citing officers, it often went off in every match. After the warlike second Test, the authorities agreed the showpiece third had to be disciplined for the good of rugby. After a few seconds of what became known as the 'Battle of Ballymore', Nick Farr-Jones and Robert Jones (the scrum halves!) fought each other. The legendary 'Iron' Mike Teague saw off the Wallabies' forwards. This was Sir Ian McGeechan's first tour in charge, banishing all the years of amateurish prep. Apparently, Australia's land is 'girt by sea'. Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager. Lost 2-1Coach Ian McGeechanTour captain Gavin HastingsBest Lion Martin Bayfield A grim new era, because it was the tour when too many in the class-free New Zealand public put their respect for the Lions on hold and came along to boo them on and off the field. Yet another tour was decided because the Lions were not remotely ready for the first Test and, also, a contingent of the touring group decided to drown their sorrows when not making the Test team. Amazingly, the Test the Lions won was at Athletic Park in Wellington, an ancient semi-ruin perched precariously on the edge of a precipice with storms sweeping up the valley. They served battered sausage on lollipop sticks. Other cuisine was more basic. Won 2-1Coach Ian McGeechanTour captain Martin JohnsonBest Lions Tim Rodber, Scott Gibbs The all-time height of British and Irish rugby, when Wonderwall became a rugby anthem. Battered Boks. The series glory was harder earned even than England's World Cup victory in 2003, and there was a breathtaking silence where once the home fans seethed with their own arrogance. McGeechan and Jim Telfer, the assistant coach, prepared with bared teeth; the great Martin Johnson and his men marked the passing of old Lions parties full of agreeable gentlemen enjoying the trip. There was safe bathing for us among the waves on Durban beach, out of harm's way behind the shark nets mentioned in the guidebook. Except we found out later they'd been taken away in the previous year. With minutes to go in the second Test in Durban, one Chalky Wardell, a lifetime friend of Jeremy Guscott, announced to his audience in a Bath flat: 'Guscott's going to drop a goal to win the series.' Guess what? Lost 2-1Coach: Graham HenryTour captain Martin JohnsonBest Lion Rob Henderson Arguably the most bitter Lions experience, but with a happy sting. The Lions cruised gloriously to victory in the first Test and then dominated the first half of the second. It was seemingly all over, until Jonny Wilkinson threw a horrible loose pass that was intercepted by Joe Roff of the Wallabies. From then on, a Lions team ravaged by injury and discord could not recover and they lost in the decider in Sydney. However, the victory made Australia overrate themselves, opening the way for England to win the World Cup two years later — with Jonny's drop-goal. Lost 3-0Coach Clive WoodwardTour captain Brian O'Driscoll/Gareth ThomasBest Lion Dwayne Peel Horror story, horror winter. Take me home. Sir Clive Woodward made one of the few errors of his career in recycling England's World Cup squad for the trip. After Brian O'Driscoll, the Lions captain, had been almost decapitated by a horrendous late and dangerous double tackle by Keven Mealamu and Tana Umaga, no disciplinary action was taken. The disciplinary officer was seen by the man from The Times sprinting through the international terminal at the airport. We took a break in what the guidebook called the 'winterless Bay of Islands'. It was bloody freezing. Lost 2-1Coach Ian McGeechanTour captain Paul O'ConnellBest Lion Simon Shaw An epic series, with the Lions fielding some great players — and needing to, against a great Springboks team. They were not ready for the first Test; but the second Test in Pretoria — one of the greatest games ever played — was all Lions. Until, that is, they lost two forwards and two backs inside about seven minutes of play. And until Jaque Fourie of the Springboks was awarded a vital try after key replays were never shown by the host broadcaster. To some, he appeared to be halfway up the stand as he touched down. Won 2-1Coach Warren GatlandTour captain Sam WarburtonBest Lion Leigh Halfpenny The Lions were fortunate to take the first Test — as usual, their ridiculous timetable had not allowed them to be ready. But in a poor match in Melbourne, Australia levelled the series. And then, the Lions roared in Sydney. With Alex Corbisiero mincing the Australian scrum, the Lions scored glorious tries and won the series at pace. Weak iced yellow watery stuff all round! Drawn 1-1Coach Warren GatlandTour captain Sam WarburtonBest Lion Maro Itoje Maro's match. Inspired by Maro Itoje, the Lions came thundering back in Wellington in the second Test to draw level at 1-1. The teams still could not be separated at the end of the third Test when the All Blacks were awarded a kickable penalty with the scores level and seconds remaining. As Sam Warburton recently explained to our readers, he persuaded the referee to re-examine the replay, which was not strictly allowed. He did. No penalty. Class, Sam. Lost 2-1Coach Warren GatlandTour captain Alun Wyn JonesBest Lion Duhan van der Merwe This was going through the motions during the pandemic. Watched only by the groundsmen and some distant hacks, the halting Test series never grew out of short trousers. The first Test was characterised by a Lions win and some utterly ludicrous reactions from the South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber. The Lions could never raise the pace to take either of the second or third Tests, which they should have been capable of doing. We were followed all around by lovely ladies in a white get-up getting up our noses daily in a search for the virus. In a dramatic broadcast halfway through the tour, South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa lifted the ban on alcohol sales. Even during the pandemic, something in the beloved country — the best venue for Lions — still enriched the soul.

Daily Mail​

an hour ago

• Daily Mail​

THE MOUSE WHO ROARED! McLauchlan shone from Tarbolton to Dunedin... and back again

There was an added sense of poignancy that news of Ian 'Mighty Mouse' McLauchlan's sad passing should arrive just as the latest batch of British and Irish Lions were jetting off on this summer's adventure to Australia. McLauchlan, who died on Friday aged 83, was considered one of the toughest and feistiest players to ever pull on a Scotland jersey, something he did 43 times between 1969 and 1979. It was his performances for the Lions, however, that elevated the Ayrshire-born prop's reputation and brought him to wider recognition, something he did with distinction over two tours of duty. The first came in 1971 when a group that included Welsh great JPR Williams and Irish icon Willie John McBride won two games out of four and drew the final one to secure what remains the Lions' only series victory in New Zealand. McLauchlan played a pivotal role in the first Test in Dunedin, charging down an attempted All Blacks clearance to score the only try of the game. Perhaps surprisingly for a player who scored frequently in the club game, it also turned out to be the only Test try of his career. McLauchlan was back in the fold three years later when the touring party, now captained by McBride, won 21 of the 22 matches they played in South Africa and drew the last one to earn the nickname 'The Invincibles'. It was a physically bruising, often violent tour but the Lions proved too strong for their Springbok hosts as they clinched the Test series by three matches to one. McLauchlan was again pivotal, playing in every Test match just as he had done in New Zealand, making him one of just five players to be ever-present across the two victorious series. International rugby had come late to the man from the Ayrshire village of Tarbolton, not a renowned stronghold for the sport. When he made his Scotland debut a month short of his 27th birthday in an 8-3 Five Nations loss to England at Twickenham in March 1969, he became the first former pupil of Ayr Academy and ex-Jordanhill College student to be capped for his country. 'Much of that day is a haze but I remember sitting in the changing room at 2.50pm,' he wrote in his autobiography, Mighty Mouse. ''Open the doors', I thought. 'Let me get out there and at them'. I had waited all my life for that moment.' McLauchlan wasn't big for a loosehead at under 15 stone and just 5ft8 tall but what he lacked in physical stature he made up for with tenacity and determination, in the scrum especially where he would regularly give his tighthead opponent a difficult afternoon. His club performances for Jordanhill and West of Scotland brought him belatedly to the attention of the Scotland selectors — six years after his first trial — starting a decade-long period of international recognition where he'd go on to establish himself in the team before becoming captain in 1973. He would lead his country 19 times, an achievement that stood as a record until it was later surpassed by David Sole. On one of those occasions, another Calcutta Cup clash with the Auld Enemy, he captained the team despite having broken a bone in his leg against Ireland just a fortnight earlier. Although he came from a corner of the country where football, racing pigeons and whippets were the favoured pastimes, McLauchlan would become a rugby obsessive. 'I was hooked straight away,' he admitted. 'I loved the physicality, the brutality and the camaraderie of it. Before long, the game had become the be-all and end-all of my life. 'I never wanted to give up. I played every minute I could play. I used to go down to Wales mid-week and play. I'd go to Ireland at the weekends and play on the Sunday. At that time Scottish Rugby had a ban on Sunday rugby but it didn't seem to matter too much in Ireland. It was quite good. You'd play in Glasgow and get the six o'clock plane to Dublin and come back on the Sunday night.' The 1970s were not a hugely memorable period for Scottish rugby overall, with the unlikely five-way tie in 1973 the only championship Scotland celebrated throughout the decade. The feeling was, though, that it could have been even worse had McLauchlan not done his best to lift the level through both word and deed until his international retirement in 1979, again with another Test match against the All Blacks, this time at Murrayfield. He worked as a PE teacher at Broughton High School in Edinburgh, launched his own marketing firm and even had a brief spell in journalism but rugby remained in the blood, making it little surprise that he would continue to contribute to the sport later in life. He served as president of Scottish Rugby from 2010 to 2012 and remained on the board until 2019. 'I've always been involved in rugby in one way or another,' he said at the time. 'I suppose it kind of appealed to my sense of humour, the thought of being on the board. 'It's like everything else. I just wanted to do something to help rugby. It's a plain, simple fact: if you don't do anything, you don't get much from it — but if you try to do something you get a great deal of self-satisfaction and reward comes from effort.' McLauchlan would fill other rugby roles, too, chairing the British and Irish Lions Trust, becoming a director of European Professional Club Rugby, chair of the Murrayfield Injured Players Foundation and a director of the Hearts & Balls rugby charity. In 2013 he was inducted into Scottish Rugby's Hall of Fame and four years later received an OBE for services to rugby. Later in life he moved from the Corstorphine area of Edinburgh to settle on Islay where his wife Eileen, who died in 2023, hailed from. News of McLauchlan's sad passing prompted tributes from all across the rugby world, including from former team-mate — and another Lions and Scotland legend — Andy Irvine. 'He was some character and some player,' said Irvine. 'He was smaller than most props he came up against but I never saw anyone get the better of him. He was so tough, almost indestructible. What a fantastic career he had for Scotland and the Lions. It's very, very sad.' The sad news broke just as Lions head coach Andy Farrell and his players were boarding the plane to Australia ahead of their Test series against the Wallabies. They paid tribute to one of their own: 'Our thoughts are with the friends and family of former Scotland captain and Lions great Ian McLauchlan.'

Daily Mail​

an hour ago

• Daily Mail​

The Lions head Down Under! Maro Itoje leads his squad to Australia... flying in the world's most luxurious suites

The Lions journey to Australia has finally begun after the players took off from Dublin on Saturday morning. Just hours after Friday night's defeat by Argentina, the squad bedded down in their luxury Qsuites on a Qatar Airways flight to Perth. The squad will stop off in Doha, before continuing their journey to the Southern Hemisphere for their opening tour match against Western Force. After a game of cards at the airport, Maro Itoje led his team on board, suited and booted, promising improvements as he plots to lead the side to victory Down Under. He was followed on board by back-row Henry Pollock who, as the youngest player in the squad, is responsible for carrying BIL the lion teddy throughout the tour. Andy Farrell is likely to rotate his side for the opening match at the Optus Stadium, where 40,000 tickets have already been sold for the curtain raiser. Title-winning players from Leinster and Bath are likely to feature, with the likes of No 10 Finn Russell all due game time. 'We land Sunday night in Perth, I imagine on Monday morning we'll have something getting us up and going again,' said Russell. 'So I think getting a schedule or a routine as soon as you get there is pretty important. 'But the guys who will be looking after that and trying to give us a plan for when we sleep on the flight, they've had it planned out for longer than we think.'