South Africa race row hooker Mbonambi says England “unprofessional”
The South African hooker who was at the centre of a Rugby World Cup race row Bongi Mbonambi has accused of England of being “unprofessional”.
The Springbok forward was accused by England flanker Tom Curry of calling him a “white c***” during South Africa’s 16-15 semi-final win in Paris last month.
World Rugby investigated the issue and cleared Mbonambi on a lack of evidence, but did stress that they believed Curry acted in good faith and would not have lied about the incident.
“I think it is a very sad thing when you live in a first world country [England], you think the rest of the world speaks English,” Mbonambi told BBC Sport Africa.
“It was unprofessional on their part.
“They could have gone on a website and looked for an English dictionary and looked for the word in Afrikaans.
“People understood [in South Africa] but obviously their side was misunderstood.”
The South African fans’ claims centred on the word “kant”, which means side in Afrikaans.
But a government spokesperson raised tensions when welcoming the World Cup winners back to South Africa when they described the Springboks as the “winning kant”.
South Africa beat New Zealand 12-11 in the final.