Exeter Chiefs have confirmed that the incident of alleged racist abuse of former England and Harlequins winger Ugo Monye at Sandy Park stadium yesterday was caught on camera.
The club said in a statement: “Exeter Rugby Club have been working closely alongside Devon & Cornwall Police following the reported incident of racial abuse on Sunday 19th November, which took place outside of the stadium and not within our grounds, at the conclusion of our Gallagher Premiership match with Gloucester Rugby.
“The incident was captured on CCTV and this evidence along with all relevant information has been passed to Devon & Cornwall Police and the club will continue to work closely with the authorities to support their investigations.
“We would like to say a big thank you to the huge number of people who have been in contact with the club with statements and information regarding the incident. We know that this behaviour is not representative of our fans.
“Exeter Chiefs have a zero-tolerance policy for behaviour of this kind, and we have acted as quickly as possible to ensure that this has been dealt with following the advice of all appropriate authorities.
“We would ask anyone who has any information regarding this incident to contact Devon & Cornwall Police quoting 258 20/11/23.”
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“Beyond a joke” – Nigel Owens calls for major changes to rugby
Popular former referee Nigel Owens has called for major changes to way games are officiated following what was a divisive Rugby World Cup.
The Welshman, who was writing in his column for Wales Online, believes there are a number of areas that need addressing after taking time to think about what went down in France.
Dump the bunker:
Owens wrote: “During the Rugby World Cup, I made no secret of my thoughts on the new TMO bunker. While it certainly showed how it can help to speed up games, it hardly reduced controversies or improved decision-making during the tournament and, in my opinion, ended up being used too much when the decisions should have been made by the on-field referees.
“At the moment, it feels like the TMO is refereeing matches and that is not a road that rugby should be going down. While technology has its place in the game, how it is used currently needs to change.”
Scrap the drop-out:
Owens wrote: “It was hoped that they would improve player safety by reducing the number of pick-and-gos and encourage teams to spread the ball along the back line rather than bulldoze their way over to score.
But if you look at games now, teams are still picking and going and they’re still bulldozing their way over the line. If anything, it rewards negative play as the defender can just chuck themselves under the ball and hold it up.”