Rugby authorities to seek racism feedback in wake of Luther Burrell allegations

English rugby authorities will launch a feedback process to discover the extent of racism in the game in the wake of allegations made by former England international Luther Burrell.

Burrell last month received apologies from the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Premiership Rugby Limited (PRL) after he said racism was “rife” within the sport and that racist “banter” had become normalised among team-mates.

The RFU, the sport’s national governing body, intends to begin a joint initiative alongside PRL and the Rugby Players Association (RPA) to uncover the scale of the issue.

RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney has twice met Burrell in recent weeks and said the player will be “part of the process”.

Investigations are already under way to determine if any of the abuse experienced by the 32-year-old happened at Newcastle, his most recent club.

“It is very important and good for Luther to speak up,” said Sweeney. “He has been very open, very transparent. He’s explaining and telling us his feelings and his views in terms of what has happened.

“In terms of two tangible things coming out of that, we’ve reached an agreement with Newcastle in terms of what we have to do in there and to do the right appropriate independent review of what has happened there.

“That is the first stage. And he is fully involved in that, he is aware of all of that.

Until you go through that (a feedback process), you don’t know, you don’t get your arms around the extent of the issue.- RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney

“And then, secondly, we are setting up – I don’t have the right word for it right now – but it is basically a means and a process jointly with the RPA and with PRL to go out to the broader professional game and create the right environment for