Cobus Reinach, the scrum-half for South Africa and Montpellier, has received death threats on social media following the Springboks’ victory over France in the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals.
The information was revealed by the director of rugby of the South African team, Rassie Erasmus, on his X account (formerly Twitter). Responding to false information that he allegedly said « Ireland and France can still reach the semi-finals, they just have to buy tickets, » Erasmus showed a screenshot of messages received by his player, Cobus Reinach.
During the quarter-final match of the World Cup, which the French XV lost to the South Africans (28-29), Reinach, who is a player for Montpellier Hérault Rugby, received death threats directly and in response to a photo of his young son.
This is obviously not true. Unfortunately these threats was made to Cobus Reinach!! Its 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 ud83cuddffud83cudde6 https://t.co/sghjhA2z9l pic.twitter.com/61ZFBQJxT8
— Rassie Erasmus (@RassieRugby) October 19, 2023
« Va mourir »
On this screenshot, we can read a first message: « Dirty son of a bitch, I hope you get murdered by French people on the field when you return to Montpellier, you bunch of cheating thieves, it’s easy to win a title by cheating » (sic). A few hours later, the same internet user replied to a photo of the Montpellier player’s son by writing: « Go die, you son of a bitch » (sic).
Rassie Erasmus, the South African team boss, couldn’t help but react to this. « It is obviously untrue that I said those words (referring to Ireland and France). Unfortunately, these threats were directed at Cobus Reinach. It is not nice and it upsets a mother and father to see such words about their son. »
« Il n’y a pas de raison de se plaindre, nous allons simplement continuer à avancer. Ils ne possèdent pas la même connaissance que nous », a déclaré Erasmus. L’équipe championne du monde en titre, l’Afrique du Sud, a éliminé l’équipe de France en quart de finale et affrontera l’Argentine ce vendredi en demi-finale (à 21h).
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