England’s heroic exit from the World Cup has been soured by a possible racism storm, after flanker Tom Curry made a first-half grievance to referee Ben O’Keeffe on the Stade de France.
Within the twenty eighth minute of the nationwide group’s agonising 16-15 defeat towards South Africa on Saturday night time, the Sale openside approached the New Zealand official and is heard to say over the ref mic: ‘Sir, sir, if their hooker calls me a white c**t, what do I do?’
O’Keeffe replied: ‘Nothing, please.’
The Springboks hooker was Bongi Mbonambi, who began the match and performed the total 80 minutes, that means no-one else occupied that place for the world champions all through the sport.
After the ultimate whistle, there was a noticeable altercation between Curry and the 32-year-old Mbonambi, who appeared to refuse to shake the England ahead’s hand and marched off down the tunnel.
As rumours of an unsightly alternate unfold, Curry was questioned about it within the post-match ‘combined zone’ the place interviews are performed.
Requested if Mbonambi had mentioned one thing he should not have mentioned, Curry mentioned: ‘Yeah.’ He refused to elaborate on what had been mentioned.
When requested if the matter had been cleared up on the finish, Curry mentioned: ‘No. It does not must be talked about.’
He was then requested whether or not any alleged feedback had been only a reflection of a troublesome recreation and mentioned nothing, however was visibly offended and shook his head.
South Africa forwards coach Deon Davids was requested concerning the difficulty on Sunday morning and replied: ‘I am not conscious of that. I am not conscious of any feedback. If it was mentioned, I am undecided what the remark was or when it was mentioned. I do not know.’
On the World Cup, there’s a 36-hour window for the match citing officer to refer an incident for disciplinary investigation.
England would have the choice to request for an incident to be investigated.
England had been solely minutes away from reserving their place in subsequent weekend’s ultimate, just for Handre Pollard’s late penalty to seal a dramatic South Africa win.
However for England Head Coach Steve Borthwick there was nothing however pleasure in his squad come the ultimate whistle.
For a group written off and derided earlier than the match started, Borthwick has reworked this group and now has a basis to construct on transferring ahead.
‘In that 23, we’ve seven gamers aged 25 or youthful,’ he mentioned.
‘That’s the most of any of the semi-finalists so we’ve an ideal mix of expertise and younger gamers. We’re upset however immensely happy with these guys and we’ll construct going ahead.
‘Now we have a really good group of gamers which can be studying in a short time as a result of we’ve needed to do it in a short time.’
He added: ‘The opposition have had 4 years and we’ve had 4 months. I requested the gamers to strategy the coaching in another way and so they have embraced that.
‘We thought we had been going to win tonight and we got here right here believing we might win. The gamers deserve monumental credit score for that.
‘I feel the tens of hundreds of England followers watching right here tonight and the thousands and thousands watching at house might be very happy with their group.’
