Cobus Reinach, a standout for the Springboks, claims that during the World Cup, he was dubbed a cheat and got death threats, some of which even went to his family.
During the Rugby World Cup quarterfinal stage, the South African team, the Springboks, faced severe criticism and derogatory remarks when they defeated the host nation, France.
Specifically, when he disclosed evidence of murder threats made against Cobus Reinach and his young family, Bok manager Rassie Erasmus exposed the intolerable degree of hatred the Springboks had to endure.
A picture of the Springbok’s child was included in one of the hateful texts that Reinach, a rugby player for Montpellier in France’s club league, received. The other message was addressed to his son.
Roughly translated, the one death threat letter said something like, “Dirty son of a bitch, I hope that when you return to Montpellier you get murdered by French people on the ground, gang of thieves easy to win a title by cheating.” “Go die,” is written in the text, which also has a picture of Reinach Jr.
THE SPRINGBOK SCRUMHALF HAS SINCE SPOKEN OUT ABOUT THE ABUSE RECEIVED
Recently, Reinach, a vital player of the Springbok team for the past few years, has spoken up about the horrifying torture he and his family endured.
He told L’Equipe, “I received a lot of messages after the quarterfinal match because I said the referee had been good under pressure.” The first communication was specifically addressed to me and warned me not to return to Montpellier or I would be killed.
Then my family began to worry about it. Individuals hiding behind keyboards have the ability to harm your family. This obviously crosses the line because they aren’t the ones playing against you or making choices on the field.
The French have been amazing, so I don’t want to focus on that, but this online hatred against a minority group has to stop in this game, he said. These were the ones that warned me not to return to Montpellier, that I would die, and that I was a liar.
READ THE DEATH THREATS MADE AGAINST REINACH BELOW:
When he shared the screenshots of the death threats on his own X (Twitter) account, Rassie Erasmus captioned his post as follows: “This is obviously not true. Unfortunately these threats was made to Cobus Reinach!! It’s not nice and upsets a mom and dad to see things like that said about their boy! But we are not gonna whine, we will just move on!!! Hulle weet nie wat ons weet nie.”
