Ellis Genge has called for action after condemning Benetton’s weak response to the racial abuse of their prop Cherif Traore by his team-mates.

Italy prop Traore revealed on Instagram that he received a rotten banana from an anonymous colleague in the club’s Secret Santa and that other players reacted to the present by laughing, making him feel “hurt”.

Benetton’s initial statement made no mention of punishing those involved and although the whole squad have since apologised to Traore, it is the Guinea-born 28-year-old who has appeared on the team’s social media channels in the hope of bringing the disgraceful incident to a conclusion.