{"id":292649,"date":"2023-10-22T10:24:12","date_gmt":"2023-10-22T10:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=292649"},"modified":"2023-10-22T10:24:12","modified_gmt":"2023-10-22T10:24:12","slug":"tom-curry-accuses-bongi-mbonambi-of-calling-him-a-white-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/rugby-union\/tom-curry-accuses-bongi-mbonambi-of-calling-him-a-white-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Curry accuses Bongi Mbonambi of calling him a &apos;white c***&apos;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>England&#8217;s Tom Curry accuses South Africa&#8217;s Bongi Mbonambi of calling him a &#8216;white c***&#8217; in the Rugby World Cup semi-final with alleged racist slur picked up by the referee&#8217;s mic<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>There was a noticeable altercation between Tom Curry and Bongi Mbonambi at the end &#8211; it appeared the South African refused to shake his counterpart&#8217;s hand<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Curry refused to elaborate to reporters on what was earlier said on the field\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>READ &#8211; OLIVER HOLT: Never before have so many apologies been owed by so many to so few&#8230;\u00a0 England came close to one of their greatest EVER upsets<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Latest Rugby World Cup 2023 news, including fixtures, live scores and results<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>England&#8217;s\u00a0heroic exit from the World Cup has been soured by a potential racism storm, after flanker Tom Curry made a first-half complaint to referee Ben O&#8217;Keeffe at the Stade de France.<\/p>\n<p>In the 28th minute of the national team&#8217;s agonising 16-15 defeat against South Africa on Saturday night, the Sale openside approached the New Zealand official and is heard to say over the ref mic: &#8216;Sir, sir, if their hooker calls me a white c**t, what do I do?&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Keeffe replied: &#8216;Nothing, please.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Springboks hooker was Bongi Mbonambi, who started the match and played the full 80 minutes, meaning no-one else occupied that position for the world champions throughout the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After the final whistle, there was a noticeable altercation between Curry and the 32-year-old Mbonambi, who appeared to refuse to shake the England forward&#8217;s hand and marched off down the tunnel.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/10\/76856641-12658759-Curry-a-63_1697965553444.jpg\" height=\"479\" width=\"306\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/10\/76856621-12658759-image-m-62_1697965550328.jpg\" height=\"479\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>England flanker Tom Curry (left) made a complaint about the language used by South Africa&#8217;s Bongi Mbonambi (right) in their World Cup semi-final, alleging he was called a &#8216;white c***&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/10\/76856629-12658759-In_the_28th_minute_Curry_seen_right_approached_referee_Ben_O_Kee-a-76_1697966933735.jpg\" height=\"358\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>In the 28th minute, Curry (seen right) approached referee Ben O&#8217;Keefe and is heard to say over the referee&#8217;s microphone: &#8216;Sir, sir, if their hooker calls me a white c**t, what do I do?&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>As rumours of an ugly exchange spread, Curry was questioned about it in the post-match &#8216;mixed zone&#8217; where interviews are conducted.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Asked if Mbonambi had said something he shouldn&#8217;t have said, Curry said: &#8216;Yeah.&#8217; He refused to elaborate on what had been said.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if the matter had been cleared up at the end, Curry said: &#8216;No. It doesn&#8217;t need to be talked about.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He was then asked whether any alleged comments were just a reflection of a tough game and said nothing, but was visibly angry and shook his head.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa forwards coach Deon Davids was asked about the issue on Sunday morning and replied: &#8216;I&#8217;m not aware of that. I&#8217;m not aware of any comments. If it was discussed, I&#8217;m not sure what the comment was or when it was said. I don&#8217;t know.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At the World Cup, there is a 36-hour window for the match citing officer to refer an incident for disciplinary investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>England would have the option to request for an incident to be investigated.<\/p>\n<p>England were only minutes away from booking their place in next weekend&#8217;s final, only for Handre Pollard&#8217;s late penalty to seal a dramatic South Africa win.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/10\/76856619-12658759-South_Africa_forward_coach_Deon_Davids_said_he_was_not_aware_of_-a-77_1697966933760.jpg\" height=\"424\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>South Africa forward coach Deon Davids said he was not aware of any comments allegedly made by Mbonambi (right) during South Africa&#8217;s 16-15 win over England to reach the final<\/p>\n<p>But for England Head Coach Steve Borthwick there was nothing but pride in his squad come the final whistle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For a team written off and derided before the tournament began, Borthwick has transformed this team and now has a foundation to build on moving forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;In that 23, we have seven players aged 25 or younger,&#8217; he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;That is the most of any of the semi-finalists so we have a great blend of experience and young players. We are disappointed but immensely proud of these guys and we&#8217;ll build going forward.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We have a very smart group of players that are learning very quickly because we have had to do it very quickly.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8216;The opposition have had four years and we have had four months. I asked the players to approach the training differently and they have embraced that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We thought we were going to win tonight and we came here believing we would win. The players deserve enormous credit for that.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I think the tens of thousands of England fans watching here tonight and the millions watching at home will be very proud of their team.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/10\/76847173-12658759-Handre_Pollard_s_late_penalty_saw_South_Africa_book_their_spot_i-a-78_1697968127257.jpg\" height=\"471\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Handre Pollard&#8217;s late penalty saw South Africa book their spot in the final in dramatic fashion<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/22\/10\/76847229-12658759-Head_coach_Steve_Borthwick_shared_Farrell_s_positive_outlook_aft-a-79_1697968138099.jpg\" height=\"383\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Head coach Steve Borthwick still feels there is a positive outlook after transforming his team<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/rugbyunion\/article-12658759\/Englands-Tom-Curry-accuses-South-Africas-Bongi-Mbonambi-calling-white-c-Rugby-World-Cup-semi-final-alleged-racist-slur-picked-referees-mic.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>England&#8217;s Tom Curry accuses South Africa&#8217;s Bongi Mbonambi of calling him a &#8216;white c***&#8217; in the Rugby World Cup semi-final with alleged racist slur picked <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/rugby-union\/tom-curry-accuses-bongi-mbonambi-of-calling-him-a-white-c\/\" title=\"Tom Curry accuses Bongi Mbonambi of calling him a &amp;apos;white c***&amp;apos;\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby-union"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tom Curry accuses Bongi Mbonambi of calling him a &amp;apos;white c***&amp;apos; - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/rugby-union\/tom-curry-accuses-bongi-mbonambi-of-calling-him-a-white-c\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tom Curry accuses Bongi Mbonambi of calling him a &amp;apos;white c***&amp;apos; 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