{"id":428679,"date":"2026-02-16T13:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T13:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/428679\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T13:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T13:01:09","slug":"probe-launched-over-cowardly-abuse-of-edwin-edogbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/428679\/","title":{"rendered":"Probe launched over \u2018cowardly\u2019 abuse of Edwin Edogbo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is investigating \u201ccowardly\u201d racist abuse directed at Edwin Edogbo<\/a> following his international debut.<\/p>\n

Munster<\/a> second row Edogbo was targeted on social media after coming on as a replacement in Saturday\u2019s 20-13 Guinness Six Nations<\/a> victory over Italy<\/a> in Dublin.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old was born and raised in Cobh, County Cork to Nigerian parents.<\/p>\n

Posts on the IRFU\u2019s X and Instagram accounts celebrating Edogbo\u2019s first cap attracted a number of racist comments.<\/p>\n

In a statement released to Press Association Sport, an IRFU spokesperson said: \u201cWe\u2019re aware of some targeted abuse online in recent days and continue to work with Signify (a data technology company which specialises in protecting against online abuse) and the relevant authorities to report it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

England <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ireland <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will also continue to fully support all affected by the cowardly actions of a minority and investigations are underway alongside our partners Signify.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that racist abuse has no place in Irish society and the IRFU has a zero tolerance policy towards racism of any form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edogbo played the final 10 minutes against Italy after coming on for James Ryan.<\/p>\n

He received a huge cheer from the Aviva Stadium crowd before helping Andy Farrell\u2019s side hold on for victory during a nail-biting finale.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my main goal with this campaign \u2013 I\u2019ve had a few chances with Faz (Farrell) and a few chats with Paulie (forwards coach Paul O\u2019Connell) \u2013 I just want to learn as much as possible,\u201d said Edogbo.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously every player wants to play all the games but I understand this is a very special place, a very privileged place to be and it takes time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Faz did an interview about how I need to find my feet and he\u2019s 100 per cent right, there is an element of knowing the system, knowing your team-mates and ultimately international rugby is a different beast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose I got a taste of that and I know from that little block I had there, there\u2019s a lot of work to be done and I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/a> continue their Six Nations campaign on Saturday against England<\/a> at Twickenham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is investigating \u201ccowardly\u201d racist abuse directed at Edwin Edogbo following his international…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-428679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}