Bongi Mbonambi has branded England “unprofessional” after being cleared of allegations that he made a racist comment towards Tom Curry during the World Cup semi-final.
World Rugby found “insufficient evidence” to support Curry’s claim that Mbonambi called him a “white c**t”.
Mbonambi said the incident arose because Curry did not realize that he was speaking Afrikaans, a common practice among the Springboks to ensure that opponents do not understand their messages.
“I think it’s a very sad thing when you live in a first world country (England) and you think the rest of the world speaks (only) English,” he told BBC Sport Africa on Tuesday.
“It was unprofessional on their part. They could go to a website and look up an English dictionary and look up the word in Afrikaans.
“People understood (in South Africa), but of course their side was misunderstood.”
World Rugby stressed that Curry made the allegation in good faith and added there was no suggestion it was “deliberately false or malicious”.
Both players have been subjected to online abuse since the alleged incident, with Curry’s club Sale Sharks saying they were “disgusted” by some of the criticism leveled at their player.
