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

Henry Slade of England and Rob Valetini of Australia gesture as Tom Curry lies injured on the ground (Photo by Dan Mullan/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

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

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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.

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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.”

Player Tackles Won

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Maro Itoje
22
2
Ben Earl
20
3
Chandler Cunningham-South
18

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.

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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.”

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Comments

10 Comments
N
NK 8 days ago

One replay seemed to show George Martin's knee knocked Curry out, caught the back of his head after the contact with Valetini.

N
NigelGhost 10 days ago

Faked an injury to avoid playing the Bokke, in case his feelings got hurt again

M
MB 10 days ago

Steve Borthwick has run out of excuses

Same old

Time to go I think

D
DP 10 days ago

Overrated player. Much better flankers in the UK. Get well soon wit kant.

B
Bull Shark 10 days ago

I can’t believe Borthwick hasn’t been fired yet.


It’s ruined my Sunday a little to be honest.

D
DP 10 days ago

RFU have spunked too much cash to fire him. 6N is going to be very interesting..

K
KiwiSteve 11 days ago

Curry should retire. He is a danger to himself and a liability to the team. He's on a one trip to dementia and motor neurones.

F
FC 11 days ago

Yeah, better to go get concussion than humbled by the Boks again. Get well soon you little twerp.

N
NigelGhost 10 days ago

Putting the cant in kant

B
Bull Shark 10 days ago

I’d also fake a concussion to get out of next week.

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J
JW 53 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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