World Rugby’s ‘loud and clear’ warning to keyboard warriors ahead of Women’s Rugby World Cup
The Women's Rugby World Cup kicks off this evening.
Online trolls have been warned that abuse of players or officials at the Women’s World Cup, which kicks off tonight, will not be tolerated and perpetrators will be hunted down.
Rugby union stages its first World Cup since the 2023 men’s tournament in France ended with Wayne Barnes receiving “vile” abuse and death threats over his refereeing of the final. He announced his retirement soon afterwards.
In the same year one in five players at the women’s football World Cup received discriminatory, abusive or threatening messaging, according to findings released by Fifa and Fifpro.
Sunderland opener
The problem has not gone away and tonight’s curtain raiser in Sunderland, where hosts England take on the USA, comes a month after Jess Carter was racially abused online en route to England’s Lionesses winning Euro ’25.
It is also exactly a week since the first match of the new Premier League season, at Liverpool, was halted before half-time after Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo reported racial abuse from an individual in the crowd.
The abuse of Semenyo continued online, prompting the Ghanaian forward to post on Instagram: “When will this stop?”
The answer to that is no time soon and World Rugby are so alive to the toxic issue heading into their flagship women’s tournament that they have extended their forensic monitoring service from match officials to include all athletes and teams.
Sally Horrox, chief of women’s rugby, said: “Sadly, women athletes, female athletes, are 30 per cent more likely to experience this type of abuse than men.
“Supporting athletes is fundamental to everything the competition is doing and we are doing. We have invested in Signify, the anti online hate and abuse programme which monitors and acts on any online hate and abuse.
“And we’ve extended that from the officials (at the men’s World Cup) to all of the athletes and teams in this competition because we want these women to be able to perform to their potential and to feel safe. No-one deserves that type of abuse.”
A year on from the 2023 men’s Rugby World Cup there were 30 cases ongoing in five different jurisdictions which have since brought prosecutions or warnings.
Dom Rumbles, chief communications officer at World Rugby, said: “We’ve proven through our investigations that while not all lead to convictions, what they do do is make everyone aware that these people can be found, particularly if they’re trying to hide behind an anonymous handle.
“Some cases result in a knock on the door or a communication, in the case of that person being a minor. Just having their family know what they’re doing and make clear they’re not operating in a vacuum, is enough to make them think twice about their actions.
“If we know who these people are, where they live, where they’re a member of a rugby club or whatever it might be, it’s also a little tap on the shoulder of the [rugby] union of the country in which they reside to say, ‘Hey, you may want to be aware of this person’.”
Rumbles added: “Most online abusers wouldn’t say what they type to someone’s face. The only reason they do it is because they feel anonymous and don’t feel that they can be reached.
“So our message, loud and clear, is: You might think you’re hiding, being a keyboard warrior, but we can find you.
“It’s hard to do. Invariably, the person who’s abusing resides in a different country. But it doesn’t matter where you live, what platform you’re on, we can find you.
“Signify has probably the most advanced, sophisticated kind of triaging and investigation tool. Not only have they got the ability to monitor in 35 different languages and dialects, they also already have the links into Interpol and the prospective crime unit.
“We’re not talking just general policing, but the specialist units within a number of major countries.”
In an exclusive interview with Planet Rugby last year Barnes, high flying criminal barrister as well as one of rugby’s finest referees, revealed how the net was starting to tighten on the trolls.
“The criminal justice system moves slowly but we can look at new ingenious ways of creating a legal consequence,” he said. “For example, Cease and Desist letters to say if you write this again we now know who you are and you will be in breach of a court order.
“We can immediately go to the court and put an injunction on you. And if you breach that you’re in contempt of court which is an automatic criminal conviction.
“You can bring injunctions against people to say if you send this again you’re in breach of the injunction and we’d also like the costs of bringing this injunction against you. So a financial cost against an individual.”
Last summer a 90-minute meeting was held between various sporting bodies and representatives of Instagram, X, TikTok and Facebook. Former rugby star turned pundit Ugo Monye was in the room and came away cautiously optimistic progress would be made in governance and accountability.
A year on he is less sure. He does not see a big enough deterrent. “Online is a free for all,” he sighed.
Ever present issue
Rumbles agrees social media abuse is an “ever present issue”, adding: “We obviously hope we don’t have anything that we have to deal with in this World Cup but the reality is we probably will.
“The bigger the platform, the bigger the issue. That’s why the men’s Rugby World Cup was particularly tough on match officials. We’ve extended our monitoring to the players. Is that a deterrent? I think it’s more around mental wellbeing and mental wellbeing being a performer enabler rather than an inhibiter.
“If a player or referee is worrying about this, because we haven’t protected, we haven’t put a service in place, they’re less lightly to perform to their absolute ability, whether that be in training or playing.
“They’re worrying about it; worrying about what might happen to them, the impact on their families, whatever it might be.
“With Signify on board they can continue with what they’re doing, knowing that, basically, we’ve got their backs. We’re taking that action for them.”