England confident allegations of racism against Bongi Mbonambi won't distract Tom Curry in bronze final

England insist Tom Curry is ready for Friday's World Cup bronze final as squad and management rally around the flanker caught in a racism storm.

World Rugby is investigating an allegation made by Curry that he was racially abused by South Africa hooker Bongi Mbonambi in the first half of Saturday’s semi-final defeat.

After a complaint made by the Rugby Football Union, audio and video footage is being examined for evidence.

If the 25-year-old is picked against Argentina on Friday night it will be his 50th cap and attack coach Richard Wigglesworth is confident the alleged incident will not be a disruption as England prepare to sign off their World Cup.

"Tom is good. I know players will have got around him. Steve and the management team have been all over it. I’m sure he’s getting every bit of support that he needs," Wigglesworth said.

"I’m not sure you can ever put yourself in those shoes and know that feeling. What I do know is he’s an impressive young man who, if selected on Friday, will pour everything into that England shirt as he has done on the previous 49 occasions.

"It will be dealt with by World Rugby. We get stuck into our prep for Argentina. The process is the process and we have no knowledge of how long that will go on for or the outcome, but we have to get ready for Argentina.

"Every week there is always some sort of thing you could be distracted by. It’s international rugby, there’s a lot you could be distracted by. You want to be in situations where there are distractions.

"This distraction is different, but it’s still noise that isn’t about Friday night, our prep and our desire to finish in the right way.

"World Rugby has been pretty vocal in following up things in the past and they need to do the same again."

Wiggle