URC statement: The Cherif Traore racism incident at Benetton

URC officials have issued a 96-word statement confirming they are investigating the racist incident that took place against Cherif Traore at Benetton Rugby, one of the tournament’s 16 clubs. It emerged on Wednesday via Instagram that the Benetton prop Traore has been the victim of a racist secret Santa gift and he took to social media to detail what had happened.

A general meeting was called by the Benetton club on Wednesday afternoon which resulted in apologies being made to Traore. However, while the Azzurri front-rower later attempted to draw a line under the matter with a follow-up post to his Instagram account, his club have been heavily criticised for its reaction.

High profile players such as Simon Zebo, Ashton Hewitt, Ellis Genge and Paolo Odogwu have taken to social media to voice their concerns over what had happened. Zebo called for Traore’s unnamed teammate to be sacked and Genge attacked the meek response of Benetton, describing it as a box-ticking exercise rather than the club taking racism seriously.

The controversy has now produced a response from the URC, the five-nation tournament that the Benetton club participates in.

The statement read: “The United Rugby Championship has been in communication with Benetton Rugby regarding the incident first identified in a social media post of Cherif Traore the Italian international prop forward.

“Benetton Rugby has been asked to provide a full report on what has occurred and what meaningful action will be taken as a result. Racism and discrimination of any kind are abhorrent, completely unacceptable in society and are utterly counter to the values of the sport of rugby and the United Rugby Championship. There will be no further comment until we have additional information on the incident.”

The Stade Francais-based Odogwu had tweeted: “Crazy lack of accountability here, doesn’t feel much like ‘family’ making the person who already suffered do the PR.”

Meanwhile, Dragons player Hewitt added: “If one of my teammates gifted me a rotten banana as ‘banter’ for secret Santa, there would be scenes.”