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Genge and Odogwu condemn 'tick box' Benetton reaction to Traore row

By PA
Italy's Cherif Traore (Photo by Tullio Puglia - Federugby/Getty Images)

England vice-captain Ellis Genge has called for action to be taken after condemning the weak response to the racial abuse of prop Cherif Traore by his Benetton teammates. Italy front-rower Traore revealed on Instagram that he received a rotten banana from an anonymous colleague in the club’s secret Santa and that other players reacted to the present by laughing, making him feel hurt.

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The initial Benetton statement made no mention of punishing those involved and although the whole squad has since apologised to Traore, it was the Guinea-born 28-year-old who appeared on the team’s social media channels in the hope of bringing the disgraceful incident to a conclusion.

“No well done, absolutely right, ‘gifting’ a ‘teammate’ a rotten banana for secret Santa is not a big deal and a simple apology will suffice,” worte Genge on Twitter. “If there is no further action on this from Benetton then everything we have done for ‘rugby against racism’ has been a tick box for most.”

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Stade Francais’ former Wasps centre Paolo Odogwu, who qualifies for England and Italy, joined Genge in hitting out at Benetton’s attempts to draw a line under the incident. “Crazy lack of accountability here, doesn’t feel much like ‘family’ making the person whose already suffered do the PR,” said Odogwu said on Twitter.

All Benetton players were summoned to the URC club’s training ground on Wednesday afternoon where they apologised to Traore and were addressed by president Amerino Zatta. “The meeting was an opportunity to discuss and understand how what one of my teammates did when exchanging Christmas presents is purely the result of idiocy and nothing other,” Traore said.

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I appreciate and accept his apology and that of the entire team. I’m happy with the gesture and I’m sure what happened will make the group even more solid. We are a family and as such we will continue to commit ourselves on and off the pitch, fighting, as we always have, against all forms of discrimination.”

Traore, who emigrated to Italy from west Africa as a seven-year-old and has won 16 Italy caps, brought the abuse to light in a post on Instagram. “Yesterday [Tuesday], when it was my turn, I found a banana inside my present. A rotten banana inside a bag of moisture,” he said.

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“Apart from calling the gesture offensive, what hurt me most was seeing most of my mates present laughing. As if everything is normal. I’m used to it. Or rather, I’ve had to get used to it, putting on a brave face whenever I hear racist jokes in order to try not to hate the people close to me. Yesterday was different though.

“Thankfully some comrades, especially foreigners, tried to support me. Outside Italy, a gesture like this is severely condemned even in small instances and this time I want to say my piece.”

Zatta condemned an incident that has provoked outrage, although Benetton’s president has now also come under fire for failing to conduct a meaningful investigation. “I’m happy that Cherif accepted the apology, understanding the absurd stupidity of one of his teammates,” Zatta said.

“I am sure that this will strengthen the sense of cohesion within the group and that such a gesture will never happen again in our family.”

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'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


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Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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