Tackling racism? ‘Saxon’ rugby team name is axed

AS a battalion of burly men charge on to the field of battle, the name ‘Saxons’ for England’s rugby second team seems rather apt.

But bosses yesterday announced they would be dropping the nickname because it is ‘inappropriate’ and does not ‘reflect the diversity in society’.

The Rugby Football Union said the nation’s second team will be called England A instead of England Saxons, because there are now more players from black or minority groups in the squad.

The rebranding was derided as ‘pathetic’ by fans and MPs on social media. Many asked whether the RFU had received a single complaint during the 15 years of the England Saxons.

But an RFU spokesman said:

‘We have chosen to revert to the traditional name of England A for the fixture against Scotland A [next month] as a better representation of our team today.’

Neil O’Brien, Conservative MP for Harborough, tweeted yesterday: ‘As part of the bonkers cultural cringe in this country, we have now decided to erase our historic links to... the rest of Europe.’

The Anglo- Saxons were migrants from northern Europe who settled in England in the fifth and sixth centuries.

Mark Burnett, a writer and director, added: ‘This is getting ridiculous. English are AngloSaxon. Are they going to ban New Zealand from calling their team The All Blacks?’ The RFU has also distanced itself from rugby anthem Swing Low, Sweet Chariot because of the song’s links with slavery.

The Saxons move comes a week after the Three Lions badge on the national football team’s shirts was replaced with a lion, lioness and cub to show ‘the true diversity’ of the English game. n THE Church of England yesterday rowed back from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s promise that monuments linked to slavery and colonialism ‘will have to come down’.

Instead, in a major report on ‘contested heritage’ in churches and cathedrals, it said that history ‘ demands that we resist knee-jerk responses’.

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