Sydney Roosters prop Spencer Leniu still hopes to meet Broncos five-eighth Ezra Mam face to face to apologise for the racial slur during their opening round clash in Las Vegas which cost him an eight-match suspension.
Leniu told one of the biggest attended judiciary hearings in recent years on Monday night that he had wanted to fly to Brisbane last week to meet with Mam "face to face, man to man", but the playmaker rejected his approach.
Mam, a Torres Strait Islander, did not attend the two-hour hearing in Sydney, but he tendered a statement detailing his hurt and anger after Leniu had called him a “monkey”.
“In about the 68th minute of the game Spencer Leniu tackled Payne Haas. I saw Spencer Leniu at marker, and I recall saying words to the effect of ‘run it back at Spencer’ as Payne was playing the ball,” Mam said.
“I then recall Spencer Leniu saying the words, ‘f--- up, you monkey’. I felt so angry and disappointed about the incident that my mind wasn’t able to focus on rest of the game.”
While Mam asked that the rest of his statement remain confidential, NRL judiciary chair Geoff Bellew, SC, said the incident has had a significant personal effect on him and members of his family, and raised deep seated cultural issues for all of them.
Leniu insisted during the hearing that he did not know the significance of his slur to the Indigenous community and despite the judiciary panel rejecting his claim, Roosters CEO Joe Kelly maintained that was the case.
Story first published by NRL.com