Irish and Welsh Rugby Payers Refuse to Take a Knee - BLM Values Not Aligned with Theirs

As both teams lined up before their first round Six Nations clash, an obligatory 'anti-racism' message came over the tannoy system. Irish and Welsh Rugby Payers Refused to Take a Knee.

England star Billy Vunipola, who refused to take the knee on Saturday, criticised BLM for "burning churches and bibles," following a number of violent riots in the US last year.

"What I saw in terms of that movement was not aligned with what I believe in," Vunipola told The Good, The Bad And The Rugby Podcas

It isn't the first time BLM and rugby have caused a stir though.

Last year, BLM activists tried to ban popular England supporter song Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, because it was written by a freed slave from 19th-century Oklahoma.

The move was rejected though, with 69% of rugby fans saying they felt the song should not be banned in a Rugby Union survey at the time.