Dr Mark Falcous, of the Dunedin-based School of Physical Education, was responding to comments posted on www.odt.co.nz concerning the behaviour of New Zealanders towards English rugby supporters.
Those comments came after a reader-generated story entitled "New Zealanders hatred of the English", and earlier this week the New Zealand Herald reported Australian fans had been spat at and were subject to vitriolic abuse by their New Zealand counterparts.
"Some of the charming exchanges involved sexual comments about my wife, instructions on how we could all f . . . off back to Australia and even included one charming bloke attempting to spit on us," Wallaby fan Phil Dunne, of Sydney, said.
England supporter Adam Morton said he was appalled by some of the behaviour of Kiwi fans in the opening two Dunedin games, including swearing and racist taunts directed at English players.
Some New Zealand fans who had adopted the Argentina team for the opening clash against England openly goaded England supporters, calling them "Pommy bastards", he said.
"I felt like it was a fancy dress ball by the Ku Klux Klan and I had come as Al Jolson." The majority of fans were well-behaved and supportive, but the vocal minority - including four middle-aged men at Sunday's game - spent their time abusing players in front of children and other families.
"They were a disgrace." The Dunedin man, who held a barbecue at his home for visiting rugby fans earlier this month, said New Zealand's lack of recent success at the World Cup was showing and Kiwi fans were worried.
Fair Go presenter Aussie Alison Mau, says transtasman banter is now more serious than "fun between mates", and there is more bad feeling from Kiwis than they are willing to admit.
Ms Mau, who considers herself an adopted Kiwi, said the barbs were sharpening and Australians copped more now than when she moved here in the early 1990s.
"For the first time, I feel there might be a bit more to it than just good fun between mates. It worries me," she said. "The worst sledges are generally fuelled by alcohol and are both unprintable and not worth the ink."
Dr Falcous said New Zealanders had a defensive anxiety about how the All Blacks would perform, and "my hunch is it really comes from quite a narrow national identity that puts too many eggs in one basket".
Historically, that identity was forged by New Zealand distinguishing itself from Britain, and rugby was the key, "by beating the motherland at its own game".
Having come to New Zealand from England more than eight years ago, Dr Falcous said he had experienced "a fair bit of abuse" when supporting his home country at Carisbrook, with calls of "go back home" and "bloody Poms".
"There are different sorts of ways for nationalism to be displayed and understood ...
Throw in some alcohol and some passions of a rugby game and you can get it spilling over into jingoistic bombastic nationalism."
Dr Falcous said as much as people wanted to support their team, they should respect the right of others to support theirs.
