The 42

THE IRFU SAID it is investigating the “cowardly” online racist abuse of Cork man Edwin Edogbo after his Ireland debut against Italy on Saturday.

The 23-year-old Cobh native came off the bench for the closing 10 minutes of Ireland’s win over the Italians, receiving a huge roar from the Aviva Stadium crowd as he came on for his first cap.

However, some of the IRFU’s social media posts about Edogbo attracted racist comments. The union had to close the comments on a number of its posts.

“We’re aware of some targeted abuse online in recent days and continue to work with Signify and the relevant authorities to report it,” said an IRFU spokesperson.

“We will also continue to fully support all affected by the cowardly actions of a minority and investigations are underway alongside our partners Signify.

“It is clear that racist abuse has no place in Irish society and the IRFU has a zero tolerance policy towards racism of any form.”

Signify’s ‘Threat Matrix’ service uses a combination of AI technology and human tracking to “detect targeted abusive and threatening content across all major social media platforms.”

The IRFU said the service “assesses and investigates the most serious content which will provide the IRFU, provinces and RPI with actionable evidence for a range of sanctions, including venue and ticket bans, as well as reporting the most serious cases to police.”

This investigation comes hot on the heels of Ireland head coach Andy Farrell calling out online “keyboard warriors” for abusing out-halves Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley.

Written by Murray Kinsella and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.