England second-row Maro Itoje insists that rugby still needs to do much more to eradicate racism from the sport.
An RFU report, commissioned after ex-Red Rose centre Luther Burrell revealed that he had been subjected to racist comments, found “experiences of racism in every area of elite rugby covered – men’s and women’s game, national team, clubs and academies”.
It added: “Very often these took the form of inappropriate or discriminatory comments and jokes from team-mates, opposition players and coaches.
“In the majority of experiences, these were described as repeated occurrences rather than one-off incidents.”
Itoje’s concern
Itoje was concerned over the report’s revelations, which interviewed around 500 people who are involved in the game.
“Obviously that’s not a great place to be, that’s not what we want in our sport,” he said.
“As always, we need to be actively trying to be anti-racist and try to eradicate this from our sport, our game, and our lives.”
The Saracens and England player stated that he had not been subjected to the type of comments Burrell had received, but that he still had to educate people on certain matters.
“I guess I’ve had a few experiences where things weren’t exactly what I’d have liked. I’ve never felt my skin colour has held me back in terms of selection, in terms of playing, of how the coaches have perceived me,” Itoje said.
“But I guess there’s been occasions with individuals throughout my time that have been below standard.
“You challenge the situation. Most people don’t realise what they are saying or doing is racist until you actually explain it to them.
Learning and improving
“Often when you explain to them ‘this is what you said and it means this when you said it me’, once they understand the connotation and context behind it, more often than not they realise and learn from the situation. That’s how I’ve seen it so far.
“As a society, this is something we wrestle with from time to time. I do think there have been improvements. I do think that if you compare society today to 50 years ago, my experience growing up is a lot different from my father’s experience of the time he spent in London growing up.
“There has been improvements, but this is a further reminder that we need to continue to challenge this, to make sure we’re holding each other to account.”
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