World Rugby has upheld a complaint about racist abuse by spectators towards England players during the second Test against Argentina in San Juan.
England completed their three-match tour to the Americas on Saturday, beating Argentina twice before overcoming the United States 40-5 in Washington DC. Last Tuesday, the RFU lodged an official complaint with the global governing body regarding abuse towards its players, though the culprits could not be identified by the investigation.
The England substitutes were warming up in the in-goal area during the first half of the 22-17 win when they heard the abuse, which is understood to have been “vile”, from a small pocket of spectators and directed towards the black players Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Chandler Cunningham-South. The management team were made aware after the game and reported it to World Rugby.
Opoku-Fordjour was in the in-goal area when he heard the abuse
PATRICK KHACHFE/GETTY IMAGES
“Intense efforts were made to identify the small group of five or seven individuals responsible within a crowd of over 20,000 spectators,” Gabriel Travaglini, the president of the Argentine Rugby Union, said.
In a statement, World Rugby said: “There is no place in rugby or society for discrimination, abuse or hate speech. Any complaint of discrimination is taken extremely seriously by World Rugby, and an immediate and thorough investigation was undertaken, involving witness statements, video analysis, and other lines of inquiry.
“While it is clear that an incident took place, we regret that the individuals responsible could not be identified. Working with World Rugby, the Unión Argentina de Rugby has developed an action plan to enhance their operations, educate fans and better prevent such unacceptable incidents from occurring again.”
Bill Sweeney, the chief executive of the RFU, and Travaglini condemned the abuse, as did Brett Robinson, the chairman of World Rugby.
“We offer our full support to the players involved and want them to know that rugby stands with them in opposing racism,” Robinson said. “I applaud their courage in raising what must have been a highly distressing experience.
The Argentina player Matera, second from right, was involved in a racism row in 2020
GUSTAVO GARELLO/AP PHOTO
“The rugby family holds our values close to our heart, we will never compromise what we stand for. We use our global platform to say with one voice that racism, or any other kind of hate, has no place not just in rugby, but society as a whole. We expect the rugby family to set an example and model the values that underpin a sport where all are welcome.
“I would like to thank the Unión Argentina de Rugby for their co-operation both in attempting to identify the individuals involved and for swiftly developing a comprehensive plan which we believe will make such incidents less likely in future.”
It is not the first time in recent years that Argentine sport has been embroiled in a racism row. Pablo Matera, who started in the back row in both defeats by England, lost the captaincy in 2020 after the re-emergence of historical discriminatory social media posts, while Guido Petti and Santiago Socino were suspended for the same reason.
Members of Argentina’s football squad were filmed singing a song questioning the heritage of France’s black and mixed-heritage players after their victory in the Copa América final last year. Wesley Fofana, the Chelsea defender, called it “uninhibited racism”.