England prop Ellis Genge has revealed that himself, head coach Eddie Jones and numerous other teammates were victims or racist abuse during their 2018 tour of South Africa.
“I still get that [racist abuse] now,” revealed the England and Leicester prop.
“You try and segregate yourself from all those people who are sort of naive or ignorant enough to be racist, you try and stay away from it as much as you can, but you can’t shield yourself from everyone’s thoughts.
I’m actually fucked off with this happening to every mixed race/black sportsperson. Must be the 15th time in less than a year just between me and @LewisLudlam . pic.twitter.com/iOSIC3XFgV
— Gengey (@EllisGenge) June 9, 2020
“I’m more referring when you go out in town after games and stuff. When we went on the South African tour in 2018 I remember after a game we were walking through one of the tunnels and they started hurling racist abuse at myself and a few of the other ethnic boys and Eddie himself.
“It is still very rife, especially in sport. Look, you can’t control that yourself, you just sort of need to put the message out there.
“Like Raheem Sterling said, if you have got a platform you can use it. It’s something that needs to be stamped out.”
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Sir Ian McGeechan selects his 41-man Lions squad for 2021 tour
In a year’s time (coronavirus permitting) Warren Gatland will announce his squad for the 2021 British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa.
Lions legend Sir Ian McGeechan has selected the star studded squad he’d pick to take on the world champions.
Back-three (8)
Josh Adams, Andrew Conway, Elliot Daly, Stuart Hogg, Jordan Larmour, Jonny May, Anthony Watson, Liam Williams.
Centres (5)
Jonathan Davies, Robbie Henshaw, Sam Johnson, Henry Slade, Manu Tuilagi
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Fly-halves (3)
Dan Biggar,Owen Farrell, Finn Russell.
Scrum-halves (3)
Gareth Davies, Conor Murray, Ali Price.
Props (6)
Zander Fagerson, Tadhg Furlong, Ellis Genge, Wyn Jones, Kyle Sinckler, Rory Sutherland.
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Hookers (3)
Luke Cowan Dickie, Jamie George, Ken Owens
Locks (5)
Iain Henderson, Maro Itoje, Alun Wyn Jones, Joe Launchbury, James Ryan.
Back-row (8)
Tom Curry, Taulupe Faletau, Courtney Lawes, Jamie Ritchie, CJ Stander, Justin Tipuric, Sam Underhill, Billy Vunipola.