England flanker Tom Curry has acquired 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 throughout 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 will be on it.”
The interplay was picked up by O’Keeffe’s microphone and an official evaluation was opened within the aftermath of the sport. An indignant Curry confirmed that an unsavoury incident had occurred with Mbonambi however refused to delve into any element.
It stays to be seen whether or not the Sale Sharks star is chosen to begin in England’s bronze medal match towards Argentina on Friday evening.
However Wigglesworth has spoken out in help of Curry, saying: “Tom is sweet, he’s clearly been thrown into it, however he’s a really, very spectacular younger man. It is going to be handled by World Rugby [while] we get caught into our prep for Argentina.
“The method is the method, and we now have no data of how lengthy that may go on for or the end result, however we now have to prepare for Argentina.
Ben Earl has joined Wigglesworth in praising Curry’s character, with the 25-year-old hoping the saga will get wrapped up as quickly as potential.
“Tom’s a superb team-mate, a superb buddy of mine,” he stated. “He’s additionally an extremely resilient man. He offers his all for the workforce and I do know he’s going to be doing that this weekend. I hope all of it will get resolved in a short time.”
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