England offer Tom Curry support as Rugby World Cup racism storm rumbles on
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England flanker Tom Curry has received full backing from attacking coach Richard Wigglesworth and team-mate Ben Earl after a racism row involving Bongi Mbonambi erupted in Saturday’s Rugby World Cup semi-final defeat to South Africa.
Approaching referee Ben O’Keeffe during England’s agonising 16-15 loss to the Springboks, Curry queried: “Sir, if their hooker calls me a white c***, what do I do?” The New Zealander replied: “Nothing please, I’ll be on it.”
The interaction was picked up by O’Keeffe’s microphone and an official review was opened in the aftermath of the game. An angry Curry confirmed that an unsavoury incident had occurred with Mbonambi but refused to delve into any detail.
It remains to be seen whether the Sale Sharks star is selected to start in England’s bronze medal match against Argentina on Friday night.
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But Wigglesworth has spoken out in support of Curry, saying: “Tom is good, he’s obviously been thrown into it, but he’s a very, very impressive young man. It will be dealt with by World Rugby [while] we get stuck into our prep for Argentina.
“The process is the process, and we have no knowledge of how long that will go on for or the outcome, but we have to get ready for Argentina.
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“Every week there is always some sort of thing you could be distracted by. It’s international rugby, there’s a lot you could be distracted by. You want to be in situations where there are distractions. This distraction is different, but it’s still noise that isn’t about Friday night, our prep and our desire to finish in the right way.”
Argentina will come into the third-place play-off after suffering a heavy 44-6 defeat to New Zealand in the semis. The All Blacks are gearing up for a winner-takes-all clash with South Africa on Saturday.
Ben Earl has joined Wigglesworth in praising Curry’s character, with the 25-year-old hoping the saga gets wrapped up as soon as possible.
“Tom’s a brilliant team-mate, a brilliant friend of mine,” he said. “He’s also an incredibly resilient guy. He gives his all for the team and I know he is going to be doing that this weekend. I hope it all gets resolved very quickly.”
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