Springbok hooker Bongi Mbonambi has labelled England as “unprofessional” after he was caught in an off-field racial storm shortly after the Rugby World Cup semi-final.
It was alleged he called England flanker Tom Curry a “white c**t” during the match. World Rugby found “insufficient evidence” to back up Curry’s claim.
Mbonambi said the incident arose because Curry failed to realise he was speaking Afrikaans, a common practice among the Springboks to ensure opponents do not understand their messages.
“I think it is a very sad thing when you live in a first world country (England), you think the rest of the world speaks English,” he told BBC Sport Africa on Tuesday.
“It was unprofessional on their part. They could have gone on a website and looked for an English dictionary and looked for the word in Afrikaans.
“People understood (in South Africa), but obviously their side was misunderstood.”
World Rugby stressed that Curry made the allegation in good faith and added there was no suggestion that it was “deliberately false or malicious”.
“I’m glad it was well taken care of and that is all in the past now,” Mbonambi said.