The video clip that shows the South Africa hooker supposedly calling the England flanker “a white c—” during their World Cup semi-final clash is not the one under investigation.
Instead, World Rugby is focusing on a different incident that happened after play had stopped, where there may be no room for misunderstanding.
The video that went viral on social media shows Mbonambi tackling Curry with Franco Mostert in the 24th minute of the game. England get a penalty and Curry complains to referee Ben O’Keeffe that Mbonambi has racially abused him.
But some South African fans have argued that Mbonambi was actually saying “wit kant”, which means “white side” in Afrikaans, a common way of referring to the blindside of the ruck. The referee was close enough to hear the shout, which came as South Africa were trying to stop England from scoring a try.
So this is seemingly where the incident takes place. Listen from around 8s onwards.
My advice would be to put earphones in and decide for yourself what you hear✌ pic.twitter.com/8Qo571qd4s
— Benetton Bandwagon (@CapeSaakie) October 23, 2023
Owen Farrell then tried a kick-pass to Elliot Daly, but it went out of bounds and O’Keeffe brought play back for the penalty. That’s when the real trouble started, according to sources who spoke to Telegraph Sport.
They said that World Rugby is looking into what happened next, when Mbonambi and Curry had another exchange of words.
This could be bad news for Mbonambi, who has not yet responded to the allegation. South Africa have used colours to name different sides of the ruck before, as revealed in the ‘Chasing the Sun’ documentary about their 2019 World Cup triumph. Rassie Erasmus, their coach, recalled how he shouted “the pink is on” when Willie le Roux set up Hershel Jantjies’ last-minute try against New Zealand in 2019.
But there may be no such explanation for what Mbonambi said to Curry after the whistle had blown. The two players have a history of animosity, dating back to 2020 when South Africa beat England 27-13 at Twickenham.
World Rugby announced on Monday that they were formally reviewing Curry’s allegation of discriminatory language during the semi-final, which South Africa won 16-15 to reach the final against New Zealand.
“World Rugby takes all allegations of discriminatory behaviour extremely seriously,” they said in a statement. “World Rugby will not be making further comment until the conclusion of the process.”
A spokesperson for South Africa Rugby said: “We are aware of the allegation, which we take very seriously, and are reviewing the available evidence. We will engage with Bongi if anything is found to substantiate the claim.”