The behavior of the first ever 82,000 crowd at Twickenham will be another focus of Sunday's rugby union international between England and New Zealand after All Blacks centre Aaron Mauger said he was racially abused by fans there in the same contest a year ago.
Although the Rugby Football Association rejected Mauger's allegations, officials will be on alert in case there is any sign of English fans racially abusing the All Blacks, many of whom have Pacific island backgrounds.
``In terms of the crowd, I think there were a few racial remarks made to a few of our boys last year,'' Mauger, who is part-Samoan, told New Zealand media. ``And a few of the guys took exception to it, which is fair enough because there is no place for that in sport. It seemed to be the Island guys who got picked on.''
RFU chief executive Francis Baron said nothing was reported at the time although he would ask the All Blacks management team too look into Mauger's comments.
``No allegations of any racist abuse were made during or after that game, and it is puzzling why they have now been made a year later,'' Baron said.
``Rugby is an inclusive game for all, and the RFU abhors any form of discrimination or abuse based on color, creed, sexual orientation or disability.''
Sunday's game is the first since Twickenham was expanded with the reconstruction of the south stand and the capacity has been increased from 74,000 which means even more England fans in the stadium.
``The England fans who come to Twickenham are a credit to the ethos of rugby, and we have never had any allegations of racism leveled against them,'' Baron said.
``It is disappointing that they have been unfairly accused like this. I have asked the New Zealand management to investigate Aaron Mauger's comments and to take the appropriate action.''
On the field, New Zealand has recalled the world's best flyhalf, Dan Carter, after Nick Evans, who was due to start, failed a fitness test on his injured hamstring Friday.
England, which has lost its last five games and appears in disarray a year before it defends the World Cup, will debuts three backs _ winger Paul Sackey, centre Anthony Allen and scrumhalf Shaun Perry.
