A rugby coach has apologised for swearing and calling his young players ‘jersey-pulling bitches' after a video surfaced of his pre-match pep chat to the boys.

The video was captured several years ago, but only was widely circulated this week, with many identifying the Eastern Bay junior club rugby coach, and expressing concern about his behaviour.

In the video the coach talks to the primary school aged boys about tackling. He swears several times and calls them ‘jersey pulling bitches' while referring to an opposition team as ‘f...ing c...s'.

He also tells one boy that he is 'scared as” and that he will bring some wipes down 'so you can wipe your arse when you shit your pants.”

As the video was posted on social media this week many condemned the 'disgusting behaviour” as 'toxic masculinity” which would not be tolerated at any club.

One commenter says: 'This is actually eye-opening. No wonder young fellas, especially rural, can be so f***ed up when it comes to masculinity, empathy, and general emotional well-being.”

'We wonder why men call women bitches this is gross we should be empowering our young tane not calling them pussys. This is literally coaching and teaching young children this kind of lingo.”

Others defended the approach as 'tough but fair”.

With the outpouring of attention on the video, with many tagging him, the man apologised.

'I just like to apologise for that video someone posted...I was gutted...I don't ask for forgiveness I take it on the chin because I was an arsehole in my early days.”

The coach says he spent eight years training the children twice a week, who 'mean the world to me”.

'Our house Saturday and Sunday was always full with these boys who used to stay and hunt and fish, eel and dive with me and take home meat and kai moana to their whānau.”

He says the team won every game in 2021.

Chief executive of Bay of Plenty rugby union, Mike Rogers, says they have investigated the video which was circulated this week even though it was seven years old.

'The overwhelming feedback from the community at large seeing the content has influenced this person to come forward...This must have been an incredibly tough thing to do for the person especially for someone who, by my understanding, is still a part of the same community.”

He says the union does not accept or tolerate this behaviour.

'We applaud the stance of the community for standing up and voicing their view of this content. It is not our intention to take any further action against the individual, however it is a very strong reminder to our people that we need to be vigilant and continue to monitor all our coaches to ensure they are creating a safe and enjoyable environment for our participants.”

He says support for coaches is offered by the union.

'I am very confident in the quality of our coach education programs that we deliver to all coaches involved in rugby and believe that a large percentage of our people operate the ‘right way', however we are also not naive to the fact there will be individuals who do not follow the values we set for our sport.”

Annemarie Quill/Stuff