Newcastle Falcons statement: RFU investigation

Newcastle Falcons has announced the findings of the investigation conducted by the Rugby Football Union (RFU) into allegations of racism and discrimination made by Luther Burrell, the former England centre.

The club launched an internal investigation into the allegations as soon as they were made in June 2022. After a few months, the investigation was passed over to the RFU to ensure impartiality. More than 90 people who work or have worked for Newcastle Rugby Ltd were interviewed during the investigation, which has been ongoing since October 2022.

The investigation has concluded that “on the balance of probabilities” the allegations made by the former England centre “are true”. However, they said there is insufficient evidence to say whether these allegations occurred at the club and they could not identify who made the remarks.

“The report has concluded that on the balance of probabilities the allegations made in the Daily Mail article are true but there is insufficient evidence to say whether these allegations occurred at the club.

The club outlined the incidences, including a Whats App message and two in-person incidents.

“One comment was made in a private Whatsapp group. It is our understanding that a, or a number of, private WhatsApp groups exist and that these groups may contain current or former employees of the Club, however we have no visibility of who the members are. These WhatsApp groups were not provided, recommended, sanctioned or policed by the Club, nor does the Club have any access to them. They are private communication groups.

“However, we are educating all employees that if they ever witness a discriminatory or inappropriate comment between employees in such a group, we encourage them to speak up and raise it with the Club at the time with details of the comments and the people involved. Should the Club ever receive a specific concern or formal complaint from an employee of comments made to another employee on such a group we would naturally take all possible steps, in line with our HR policies, to action this appropriately. As it is, such concerns have never been brought to the Club or its management by any employees.”

Two other incidents were also mentioned in the report, one directed at the player and one witnessed by the player.

“It is our understanding from the report findings that in relation to the two other incidents referenced in the executive summary one occurred on a night out and the other on an away trip. However, no further actionable evidence that would allow us to go down a disciplinary route as an employer has been provided i.e. names, dates, times or places. Naturally should any of that information ever come to light we would take all possible steps, in line with our HR policies, to action this appropriately.”

The report also included key recommendations, including additional training and education for employees, as well as signposting for reporting concerns.

“Luther raised numerous allegations and it remains gravely concerning that any individual would be subject to discriminatory behaviour within the game we all love, or within any walk of life. As such we welcome and support the wider action being taken by the RFU, alongside Premiership Rugby and the RPA, in terms of the wider listening exercise they’ve conducted across the sport and the resulting inclusion and diversity action plan – details of which are due to be released imminently.

“As a club we have an equality, diversity and inclusion policy in place, any breach of which would qualify as a serious disciplinary matter. We have delivered ED&I training to all our employees, have bystander training sessions scheduled for all employees and are committed to annual refresher training. We are also in discussion with the RFU about training that will be provided more widely across the sport and our owner has met with Luther to further discuss how we can all work together more closely to ensure rugby is a welcoming and inclusive environment for everyone.”

Newcastle say they plan to take all possible learnings from the investigation report to ensure they continue to take every positive action they can for the better of their employees, sponsors, club, loyal supporters, and the game.

“It is incredibly disappointing to learn that any individuals have ever felt subject to discriminatory behaviour during their time with us and we want to make it very clear that we do not condone any discriminatory behaviour, nor do we endorse the idea of classifying this as banter (as referenced in the independent executive summary). Had any reports of this nature been made to HR or management they would have been dealt with in the appropriate manner.

“Given that after an extensive investigation there remains no way to identify those involved in any of the allegations outlined above, that many staff and players have left since the time Luther was at the Club, that the report refers to generally positive feedback on the culture and behaviours of the Club and given that Luther’s stated aim was to educate and improve things for the future, going forward the Club will be focusing on education and reinforcement of the aims and processes within our policies, as recommended in the report.”

You can read the full statement HERE.