England's Tom Curry ruled out of potential Bongi Mbonambi reunion

Next Saturday’s potential on-pitch reunion between England’s Tom Curry and South Africa’s Bongi Mbonambi is off, according to Steve Borthwick.

Having verbally clashed at last October’s Rugby World Cup semi-final in Paris, a divisive situation where the English back-rower claimed he was racially abused by the Springboks hooker, the November 16 Autumn Nations Series fixture was set to tee up an intriguing rematch between the pair.

Curry claimed that he was called a “white c**t” by Mbonambi during the Stade de France game, but a World Rugby investigation in the following days found insufficient evidence. Mbonambi insisted at the time that the misunderstanding had arisen because Curry didn’t realise he was speaking Afrikaans, saying “wit kant”, the white-clothed side.

Having since overcome a career-threatening hip injury, Curry was queried in September at the Sale training ground in Carrington about the upcoming mid-November Test and his potential meeting with Mbonambi.

Asked if he would shake hands if he came up against Mbonambi on the Allianz Stadium pitch, Curry replied: “I’m not answering that.” He then added: “I have said what I need to say. I think it’s unfortunate what has happened, but it is what it is.”

Having played off the England bench in all three summer tour matches, Curry was a starter last weekend against New Zealand but his appearance this Saturday in the No7 shirt versus Australia was cut short after a juddering blow to the head.

The openside went to tackle Rob Valetini but he got his head on the wrong side and the blow sustained left him exiting the field with less than 23 minutes played.

At the time, England were comfortably leading 15-3 but his departure was followed by some incredible topsy-turvy action which culminated in a 42-37 win for the Wallabies that was sealed by Max Jorgensen’s 83rd minute converted try.

Asked if Curry early absence upset England’s rhythm, Borthwick said: “If you lose a world class player early in the game it certainly has an impact. I thought Alex Dombrandt came on and played really well, but clearly the balance of the back row changed at that point.

“You have to adapt to those things and we took a few knocks and bangs and we had to change things in that first half quite early, and then that continued through the second half.

“I will be waiting for the full medical report to understand where everyone is at but I think everyone saw the way Tom was down, he will be unavailable next week.”