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Verbal abuse of rivals happens on the field in top-level sport all the time. It shouldn\u2019t do but it does. It is all part of the psychological game within a game. The question is where to draw the line. Racial abuse is clearly well over it but the Tom Curry case has thrown up a potential anomaly.<\/p>\n
If a black player is found guilty of race-based abuse of a white opponent, is it as deplorable as a white player racially abusing a black player? The RFU\u2019s incandescent response to World Rugby yesterday over their refusal to pursue a case against Bongi Mbonambi over the claim made by Curry during last weekend\u2019s Rugby World Cup semifinal reflected their desire to support their player but also how seriously they viewed his allegation.<\/p>\n
Curry drawing the attention of referee Ben O\u2019Keeffe to what he thought he had heard from the lips of South Africa\u2019s hooker last weekend opened up a can of worms. Quizzed about what had been said during the game immediately afterwards, he refused to elaborate but in this technological age what happens on the field, no longer stays on the field.<\/p>\n
The replay of the referee\u2019s audio duly confirmed him asking O\u2019Keeffe – with the quaint preface \u201cSir\u201d – \u201cIf their hooker calls me a white c***, what do I do?\u201d It was pretty much a rhetorical question. Slinging a right hook, hurling racist abuse back or walking off in a World Cup semifinal would have been an erroneous course of action.<\/p>\n
Buy all of your Rugby World Cup 2023 programmes here<\/strong><\/p>\n Must read… <\/strong> England issue furious response as Bongi Mbonambi investigation ends[LATEST] <\/strong><\/p>\n Rugby offers more than enough opportunities to extract legal retribution for any perceived wrongdoing and Curry went on to play one of his best games for England, topping the tackle count by a country mile. But in the end, it was all for nothing as England lost in agonising fashion and the gates of hell were opened.<\/p>\n The flames from his claim caught and the England flanker and his family were subjected to worse abuse than he claimed to have received on the field in the first place. The court of social media sat and convicted Curry of either linguistic stupidity or worse, malicious invention. You can dismiss any idea that he made the whole thing up. Why would he?<\/p>\n But the explanation from Mbonambi\u2019s defenders that it was a simple case of misunderstanding an Afrikaans defence call \u2018wyd kant\u2019 – which translates as \u2018wide side\u2019 – was plausible. That was until the RFU brought up another allegation of a similar exchange between the same players when the sides met at Twickenham 11 months ago. Another defensive misread?<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/69\/590x\/secondary\/5035214.jpg?r=1698395598640\")
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