England World Cup ace Curry shows class in painful interview after ‘racist slur’

England v South Africa review

England flanker Tom Curry showed his exemplary professionalism after keeping his composure in the wake of allegations he made that he was racially abused by a South Africa player. Steve Borthwick’s men fell to a heartbreaking late defeat in their Rugby World Cup semi-final against South Africa, having led for 78 minutes in the game before Handre Polland’s penalty at the death cruelly sent England home from the tournament.

An emotional Curry was asked to put into words his feelings about the game and the 25-year-old struggled to respond, answering: “Yeah”, to the first two questions put forward to him by an ITV reporter when asked if he was proud of his team.

He was then asked about the coaching from Steve Borthwick and his staff, with Curry elaborating by praising South Africa for their performance: “In terms of the clarity we got from the coaches and the players buying in, you saw it maybe 95 per cent [of the time].

“But credit to South Africa. The set pieces and in terms of the scrum, they did extremely well. We’ll look at that in terms of how proud we are with the effort but yeah, not quite good enough.”

READ MORE Springboks leave it late to reach Rugby World Cup final with win over England[REPORT]

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Curry kept his emotions in check after the defeat and the alleged incident involving Bongi Mbonambi. During the game, he was overheard telling referee Ben O’Keeffe that a South African player had allegedly aimed a racist slur at him during the match, with the flanker accusing Mbonambi of calling him a “white c***”.

The alleged incident is said to have occurred 30 minutes into the game when the score was 9-3 in England’s favour. The microphone attached to New Zealand official O’Keeffe picked up the audio from Curry, who could be heard asking: “Sir, Sir, if their hooker calls me a white c*** what do I do?”

The Sale Sharks man carried on with his job as normal and he did not discuss the alleged controversy after the game, even after Mbonambi appeared to refuse to shake his hand. Asked if the South African said something he should not have, Curry simply said: “Yeah”, before adding “it does not need to be talked about”.

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South Africa forwards coach Deon Davids appeared to be unaware of the incident when speaking at a Springboks press conference on Sunday morning. “I’m not aware of that, I’m not aware of any comment, if it was discussed,” he said. “I’m not sure what the comment was or when it was said. I don’t know.”

South Africa later confirmed in a statement they were looking into the allegations made by Curry and vowed to ‘engage’ with Mbonambi if there is evidence to back up his claim.

A spokesperson for South Africa Rugby said: “We are aware of the allegation, which we take very seriously, and are reviewing the available evidence. We will engage with Bongi if anything is found to substantiate the claim.”

A World Rugby spokesperson said: “At present, it would be inappropriate to comment while the review window is open (36 hours).”

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