Former Ireland international Neil Francis has been sacked from his role as a pundit with the Irish Independent following a comment he made about British and Irish Lions fly-half Marcus Smith. Francis, working on the newspaper’s The Left Wing podcast, made an apparently racist remark about Smith, who is of mixed British and Filipino heritage and was born in Manila. “A Harlequins out-half with a David Beckham haircut and an Oompa Loompa tan…you just couldn’t throw him in,” said Francis, who won 36 caps for Ireland from 1987-1996. Harlequins hit out at Francis in a strong-worded statement, saying: “Harlequins is disgusted by racist comments made by Independent.ie columnist Neil Francis on the paper’s rugby podcast, The Left Wing, about Harlequins, England and British and Irish Lions fly-half Marcus Smith on July 14. Marcus Smith celebrates after winning the Gallagher Premiership final with Harlequins (Nigel French/PA).

Source: The Herald July 23, 2021 19:07 UTC