England prop Ellis Genge says both he and coach Eddie Jones suffered racial abuse before a match against the Springboks in 2018.
Genge was speaking on BBC 5‘s breakfast radio show on Tuesday as part of a wide-ranging interview on the Black Lives Matter protests and the greater need for black representation in English rugby.
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When the subject shifted to racist abuse, Genge said that he and some of his black teammates – as well as coach Eddie Jones, who is of Japanese descent – had been racially abused when coming out of the tunnel during England’s three-Test tour of South Africa in 2018.
‘They started hurling racial abuse at myself and a few of the ethnic boys, Eddie himself,’ Genge said.
The 25-year-old – who was just 23 at the time – did not say at which stadium the abuse took place.
‘[Racism] is still very rife, especially in sport,’ Genge added. ‘But you can’t control that yourself.’
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