NEWS EXTRA
WALES centre Willis Halaholo has found himself at the centre of yet another racism storm.
Halaholo, who helped Wayne Pivac's side win the 2021 Six Nations, qualified for Wales on residency after three years with Cardiff Blues.
When he was first selected by his adopted country in November 2019, the Auckland-born centre was targeted for criticism on social media from bigots who believed a Welsh-born player should have been picked instead.
Now Halaholo has been targeted again after a post on Welsh Premiership club Pontypridd's site lamented the fact their former player Garyn Smith had not been picked regularly at Cardiff.
In their article referring to Smith, the Pontypridd website read as follows: “His career in regional rugby has been blighted somewhat by the preference of the Welsh regional sides to recruit players from far away places with even stranger sounding names – the players, that is, not the places!”
The article was almost instantly removed but was a not-so-subtle dig at Halaholo and Rey Lee- Lo, who both arrived in Wales from abroad and are Cardiff 's preferred midfield pairing.
Smith often starts as a replacement behind Halaholo and Lee-Lo.
Cardiff are aware of Pontypridd's removed story which showed how much work rugby still has to do to combat elements of racism and bigotry.
What it also failed to acknowledge was the fact Smith, who is still only 25, already has more than 100 Cardiff appearances to his name.
He helped his home region win the European Challenge Cup in 2018.
Smith scored a try in that Bilbao final and also won the late penalty which allowed then Cardiff full-back Gareth Anscombe to strike the match-winning three points.
