Rugby News: Test star's racist Secret Santa gift, Premiership 'heading for disaster', RFU set to lower tackle height

Italy Test prop Cherif Traore has revealed he was given a rotten banana during his Italian club Benetton’s secret santa gathering and was shocked at the laughter of many of his teammates.

Traore, 28, was born in Guinea and has won 16 caps for Italy.

Traore revealed the incident on social media, writing: “Christmas is coming and as is traditional in a team, it’s Secret Santa time.

“A friendly and playful moment. A moment where you give anonymous gifts to your mates, even stingy, ironic ones.

“Yesterday, when it was my turn, I found a banana inside my present. A rotten banana inside a bag of moisture.

“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.

Cherif Traore’ during an Italy training session this year.(Photo by Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images)

“I have been up all night. Young guys from different backgrounds attended this secret santa.

“I have decided not to remain silent this time to ensure that episodes like this don’t happen again and to prevent other people finding themselves in my current situation in the future. And hoping the sender will learn a lesson….”

The club said the staff and players had been summoned for a meeting at which the president and general manager addressed the squad, before Traore’s teammates apologised to him.

There was no suggestion of further action being taken by the club.

Benetton’s statement read: “With reference to the post that appeared this morning on the social media of the Green and White player Cherif Traore, Benetton would like to reiterate that it has always condemned with the utmost firmness any expression of racism and/or form of discrimination.

“They are not part of our culture and do not represent our identity and our values. We have always proved it with deeds, not just with words, and we will continue to strongly support it.

“Similar behaviours have nothing to do with sport and in the face of episodes like this Benetton will always be on the side of respecting people, their culture, their ethnicity, their faith and their dignity.”

Benetton later said president Amerino Zatta and general manager Antonio Pavanello called a meeting at which they “re-affirmed” to the squad the club’s “firm position of condemnation” towards racism.

The club put out a second release that included a new statement from Traore.

“This afternoon’s meeting was an opportunity to discuss and understand how what one of my companions did on the occasion of exchanging Christmas presents is purely the result of idiocy and nothing other.

“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.”

Club president Zatta said: “What happened against Cherif does not in any way reflect our identity and the values ​​that the Benetton family has been carrying forward for years.

“I’m glad that Cherif accepted the apology, understanding the absurd stupidity of one of his team-mates. I am sure that this will strengthen the sense of cohesion within the group and that such a gesture will never again find fertile ground within our family.”

Traore later issued a statement saying he accepted the apology from the entire team.

In a second Instagram post, Traore said while he would not forget what had occurred he would forgive the act of racism.

 “Christmas is around the corner. Christmas is kindness, Christmas is gratitude, Christmas is forgiveness. I speak these words over my life this year and I want to put them into practice.

“We don’t always get what we deserve and I admit it’s painful when that happens. But if you want to receive good, start doing it yourself first, right? The episode I lived through is viral and tonight I want to take this step first. I’m not like who put me through this.

“My Christmas ’22 words will just be ‘kindness, gratitude and forgiveness’. Goodness because I wanna take this situation and turn it to ‘good’. One day I will look back and be proud of the choice I made. I’m grateful for my club, my team and everyone who showed me closeness.

“And I want to forgive, which I admit, doesn’t mean forgetting something, being passive about it when it happened. But I want to lick my wounds and carry on with my head up high with no weight on my heart. I’m ready to start ’23 with the smile and the grit that has always set me apart. Will you stand by me?”

Report: Rugby ‘heading for disaster’ in England unless change is implemented

Private equity might be on the doorstep of Rugby Australia, but a report in the United Kingdom has shown the dollars it promises can be flushed down the drain just as quickly.

An exclusive Telegraph report has revealed Premiership clubs are “heading for disaster” having amassed £300 million of debt over the past six years. That figure does not include the £200m CVC Capital Partners investment in 2018.

After Worcester Warriors and Wasps were placed into administration recently, the report essentially puts into light that it is not just the two aforementioned clubs that are in danger but the entire competition.

English rugby continues to lose money despite private equity. Photo: Alex Davidson/Getty Images

Key findings from Mike Ryan, a private equities director who has worked alongside Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby, showed the game was at a crossroads.

“The club structure has historically been on an unsustainable footing. It has never made a profit. The combined losses for the clubs over the last six years, excluding the payment from CVC, has been £300 million,” Ryan explained to The Telegraph.

“At the moment, this is heading for disaster. I would like to see the fiscal-year 2022 numbers to be more comfortable with the call, but I would be surprised if they were any better than FY19 [financial year 2019]. The overall competition is still losing money.

“It is professional on the field and semi-professional at best off the field. That is the biggest problem that rugby is facing globally, in my view.”

Ryan insisted that an independent commissioner was imperative to oversee the competition.

He added that moving to a centralised model used in other sports, including American football, was one way of streamlining the competition and making it more efficient.

One benefit would be centralised contracts to “ensure stricter player payments”.

Not all the English Premiership clubs ran at a loss, according to the report.

Exeter, for instance, performed well, Gloucester posted a small profit while Northampton recorded their highest-ever revenue.

Yet, Wasps borrowed a staggering £62 million in the last financial year while Worcester, who were the first club this year to be placed into administration, wrote off £30m of borrowings prior to its fall.

Grassroots rugby set to lower tackle height in England

Not for the first time, the RFU is moving closer to another radical effort to reduce concussion by lowering the tackle height.

Three years after there were efforts to lower the tackle height in the Championship, The Telegraph reports the legal tackle height is set to be lowered to the navel for grassroots rugby union in England.

The change in law will likely affect level three and below – or everything beneath the Championship. As well as dropping the legal height of a tackle from the shoulders to the navel, ball-carriers will be told to remain as upright as possible when taking contact.

World Rugby has attempted to be a world leader when it comes to reducing concussion.

Research from the governing body has continually shown that upright tackles are the most dangerous and lead to the worst health risks.