Statement: Exeter Chiefs address article from The Telegraph

They said: "The club can confirm that the individual accused in the racism incident with Ugo Monye has no connection to Exeter Rugby Club or our subsidiary organisations.

"The club were unaware of any prior connection between the accused and a member of our community team. The two played rugby together for a local club for approximately three months, from October 2023 until the individual accused left the country to return to his native South Africa.

"That connection did not extend beyond the local club in question and is of no relevance to Exeter Rugby Club or the work undertaken by our member of staff. The individual accused was not a regular visitor to Sandy Park.

"The incident, which took place outside of Sandy Park Stadium grounds following the Gallagher Premiership match between Exeter Chiefs and Gloucester in November 2023, was swiftly dealt with by the club and security on-site.

"The club then worked with Devon and Cornwall Police to ensure that any relevant information, statements and evidence were all given to those investigating the incident.

"Exeter Chiefs have a zero-tolerance policy for any behaviour of this kind, and the club acted to ensure the incident was dealt with by the relevant authorities."

Maxwell-Keys, who took charge of the 2020 Gallagher Premiership final, eventually decided the time was right to reveal his sexuality to colleagues at Twickenham as well as his local club, Lichfield RFC in 2019.

Now based in Cheltenham, he aims to continue moving up the referees' pecking order - and his experiences since coming out have indicated that sexuality will be no barrier to that.

He said: "My experience of being part of the LGBTQ+ community in rugby has been and remains a really positive one. Players within the game actively went out of their way to be positive and offer words of support when I came out.

"Very little changed for me post coming out which reflects the inclusive environment that exists within even the top levels of the game across the clubs, officials, and supporters.

"Rugby can continue to build on the work it has done in advocating inclusivity and being true to its values. This includes supporting foundation work in communities, having safe LGBTQ+ spaces at games and equally taking bold action where members of the sport do not live up to the inclusive and game for all values the sport has."
A

Maxwell-Keys added: "To be a good ally in the sports world, you must both celebrate success of those from the LGBTQ+ community, but also actively call out individuals/ teams where needed because their action/words fall sort of what the games and its values expect."

American rugby union player who came out as gay in 2020. He is an advocate for inclusion and diversity in the sport.

A self-described “rugby maniac,” Ibañez played in college for the University of Massachusetts, and in his coming out message posted photos with his boyfriend Fergus Wade, an English medical student he met in 2017 while Wade was doing research at Harvard studying sleep deprivation in fruit flies.

Posting the photos on his coming out story added power to his desire be his authentic self. He created his Instagram account yesterday as “thatgayrugger,” since he is one of the very few openly gay pro rugby players, past or present.

Nigel Owens is a well-known figure in the world of rugby, recognized by fans, players, and anyone with even a passing knowledge of the sport. Not only does he hold the record for refereeing the most test matches, but he has also established himself as one of the most respected rugby referees globally.

Beyond his officiating duties, this Welshman has ventured into television and has become a dedicated advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. In recognition of his contributions, he was honored with the title of "Gay Sports Personality of the Decade" at the Stonewall awards ceremony in London in 2015.

"It's such a big taboo to be gay in my line of work, I had to think very hard about it because I didn't want to jeopardise my career," he confessed.

"Coming out was very difficult and I tried to live with who I really was for years. I knew I was 'different' from my late teens, but I was just living a lie."

Refereeing in as sport like rugby also hindered his decision.

"When I became a referee, it became clear that there was nobody in the sport who was gay.

"The rugby world is very heterosexual and masculine, and this made things difficult.

"Although that’s not to say that the sport is openly homophobic. It was just never an environment where I felt like I could be myself."

He wrote in his column: "There’s not too much I can say at the moment about the process itself, but we are both incredibly excited. It’s something that we’ve spoken about for a few years now and it’s taken a while to get here, but now that it’s happening we can’t wait, although I must admit it’s also a little nerve-wracking.

"As any parent will tell you, there’s no bigger commitment than raising a child, so that was obviously the main reason why I decided against the South Africa job in the end. I couldn’t, nor would I want to, go away for the next six months with this happening."

The former Leinster scrum-half came out as gay in June 2022, and thanked coaches Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster for their “unbelievable” support.

McCarthy added that he had previously thought about quitting professional rugby union because of his sexuality.

The 27-year-old added that he had taken strength from the stories of footballer Josh Cavallo and American footballer Carl Nassib, in addition to his former bisexual teammate Jack Dunne.

This summer, the scrum-half completed a move to Chicago Hounds from Major League Rugby.

Out pro rugby player Jack Dunne will have a new home next season. The Exeter Chiefs, who play in rugby union’s top division, Premiership Rugby, recently signed the promising young rugger from Leinster, a club in Ireland.

In 2022, Dunne publicly came out as bisexual in an interview with the Independent, talking about his desire to be a role model for LGBTQ kids. That’s an impressive goal for any 22 year old.