Internet sleuths have revealed that Tom Curry isn’t a “white c**t”, he just can’t understand Afrikaans.
Last Saturday night, in the heat of a frantic World Cup semi-final, on-field South African captain Bongi Mbonambi wasn’t taking time out to hurl insults at the English flanker. He was seemingly warning his teammates that England was going “wit kant” (white side) – a warning that the English Roses had changed their attacking direction.
We don’t know what “wit kant” referred to, but it clearly wasn’t Curry – who does seem a bit of a narcissist thinking it was all about him. If only Carly Simon were around to write an updated version of “You’re so vain, you probably think this Afrikaans phrase is about you…”
Wit C**t?
An intrepid rugby fan on Twitter – @rugby_ap – rewatched the whole game and found the moment Mbonambi didn’t say anything offensive.
“8 seconds in is the audio. Bongi is shouting ‘wit kant’. White side. I think this is the Springboks system call for when the opposition are switching the play. He identifies this early and alerts his defenders. You can hear him shout it repeatedly,” writes the youthful-looking A-P.
8 seconds in is the audio. Bongi is shouting ‘wit kant’. White side. I think this is the Springboks system call for when the opposition are switching the play. He identifies this early and alerts his defenders.
You can hear him shout it repeatedly. pic.twitter.com/MvG3qYnpYr
— A-P (@rugby_ap) October 23, 2023
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A grateful South Africa thanks this young sports fan for his late-night snooping. I suspect the underlying technology at play here is DStv’s Xplora decoder – on which I also recorded Saturday night’s dismal but nonetheless heart-stopping game. A-P seems to have done what we all should’ve – rewound the tape, as it were, to see if we could hear what was said.
Hopefully, the Springboks can go back to focussing on the World Cup final – which we will win, obviously.