Springboks’ player Bongi Mbonambi has finally voiced his thoughts on the racist insult claims made by England’s Tom Curry.

During the Springboks’ victorius 16-15 battle against England at the Rugby World Cup semi-finals, Tom approached referee Ben O’Keefe half an hour into the match, asking, “Sir, Sir, if their hooker [Bongi] calls me a white c*nt what do I do?” Ben answered, “Please, nothing.”

The global governing body of rugby, World Rugby, examined the audio and video recordings before allowing Bongi to participate in the championship match against New Zealand because there was “insufficient evidence” to substantiate the allegations of racial abuse.

In an interview with BBC Sport Africa, Bongi clarified that the miscommunication resulted from his use of Afrikaans. In order to keep their opponents guessing during the game, the Springboks frequently use this language on the field.

Mbonambi slammed the England team and called them unprofessional and criticised them for their ignorance.

They could be ignorant they have every explainable excuse to be but are they unprofessional? I think not, Tom Curry could’ve laid hands on Bongi instead of going to the referee, hear me out I am not justifying Curry’s ignorance, rather his professionalism to have gone to the referee instead of confronting Mbonambi during the match.

It was ignorant of them to assume that he was being racist when he was using a term that the South African, Afrikaans-peaking players understood.