Crowe gives thumbs down to rugby groupies

Gladiator star Russell Crowe says pom-poms are out and drums are in at the rugby league club he part-owns in Australia because the scantily-clad cheerleaders detract from the game and make spectators uncomfortable.

The South Sydney Rabbitohs club announced this week it would be dispensing with its cheerleading squad and replacing them with a team of percussionists to gee-up supporters.

Oscar-winning Crowe, a long-time Rabbitohs supporter who helped save the club from obscurity a few years ago before buying a major stake last year, said the club had become concerned the cheerleaders – whose uniform includes fishnet stockings and tasselled mini-skirts in the white, green and red team colours - were inappropriate entertainment.

“It makes women uncomfortable and it makes blokes who take their son to the football also uncomfortable,” Crowe told News Ltd newspapers today.

“We examined game day and wanted to contemporise and make the focus football.”

The club website has invited drummers to audition to become part of the new cheer squad.