England Rugby lodge complaint over South Africa alleged “White C***” slur
England Rugby have officially filed a complaint over Bongi Mbonambi’s alleged racial “white c***” slur against Tom Curry, Morning Wire can reveal.
Sources close to the situation have confirmed that the Rugby Football Union have officially filed a complaint.
The move takes the issue beyond the realms of disciplinary and citing commissioners and into the area of misconduct hearings.
England make the case
In the 23rd minute of England’s 16-15 loss to South Africa at the Rugby World Cup Curry can be heard on Ben O’Keeffe’s referee microphone asking: “Sir, Sir, if their hooker calls me a white c*** what do I do?”.
The New Zealand official is heard replying: “Nothing please. I’ll be on it.”
And while a clip has gone viral which appears to defend Mbonambi against claims Curry made to the referee but did not wish to discuss afterwards, Morning Wire understands that this clip is not the one which England have complained over.
Some have stated that Mbonambi used a mix of English and Afrikaans and that his statement was in fact “white kant”, which would have referred to the ball being on the “white side” of the scrum.
But the audio and video in which the complaint has been made has not been released to the public and therefore the specificities surrounding the case are unknown.
England’s Rugby Football Union said: “The RFU contacted World Rugby on Sunday and requested they investigate the concern raised on the pitch by Tom Curry.”
Sources close to the situation also confirm that the match referee Ben O’Keeffe’s audio has been released to a number of parties but the alleged incident, which took place when the ball was not in play, has not yet been circulated to all parties.