By Lucky Vince Pienaar
It has become quite customary for the Springboks as a team and as individual players to take a peace-making approach to all sorts of issues, from refereeing decisions to player injuries.
Now Bongi Mbonambi has finally come forward to let the rugby world know his feelings about Tom Curry’s complaint that Bongi called him a “white c***” and he has not pulled any punches.
In an interview with the BBC, he said England were unprofessional, presumably talking about the England National Rugby Union.
“It’s a sad thing when you live in a first-world country and think the rest of the world speaks English,” he said.
“It was unprofessional on their part.”
He said they could have found a dictionary on a website and looked for a translation.
“People understood in South Africa but their side misunderstood.”
Bongi has also made it quite clear that he never swore at Curry and had used the Afrikaans word “kant”, which means “side”.
World Rugby dismissed Curry’s official complaint and Mbonambi was cleared to play in the World Cup final but was injured in the second minute of the match and could not continue.
England Rugby have stood with their player and have expressed their displeasure at the abuse that Curry and his family have had to endure on social media.
They have also never even hinted that Curry may have misheard what Mbonambi said or that his words “may have been lost in translation”.
Pictured above: Bongi Mbonambi.
Image source: Springboks
