Leicester Tigers prop Ellis Genge has hit out at the BBC after they used a picture of Northampton Saints flanker instead of himself.
The story was regarding Genge's comments following the toppling of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol on Sunday (June 7). Genge, from Knowle West in Bristol, defended the tearing down of the statue of the slave trader by protesters at a Black Lives Matter march.
The BBC reported on his comments, but used a picture of Ludlam instead of Genge as the main image on the story, prompting the Leicester Tigers prop to call out the mistake on social media.
This led the BBC to apologise, saying that a wrongly captioned picture 'did not get the checks that we expect'.
Taking to Twitter, the England international posted a screenshot of the story with the caption: "I’m actually f****d off with this happening to every mixed race/black sportsperson. Must be the 15th time in less than a year just between me and @LewisLudlam."
Ludlam also responded to the story after seeing Genge's tweet. He said: "I’m with Gengey on this one however, wrong mixed raced guy @BBCSport.
"Probably should be getting that right on an article about race issues. Not the first time this has happened."
Ludlam followed this up by posting a screenshot of a previous incident where ITV confused him with fellow England star Anthony Watson.
The BBC's editor of online sport, Ian Singelton, replied to Genge's post, saying: "As the editor of @bbcsport online, I wanted to message you directly and swiftly to say sorry.
"A wrongly captioned image from a picture agency did not get the checks that we expect. We have fallen below our usual standards and again offer an apology to you."
England legends Will Carling and Brian Moore also replied to the post, with Carling calling the incident 'shocking' and Moore saying: "For avoidance of doubt, you've every right to be angry."
Ellis Genge was born and raised in Bristol and started his career with the Bears in 2013. Following the tearing down of the Colston statue in his home city, he moved to support the actions of the protesters.
He said: "I've got a lot of black family in Bristol and we're all proud Bristolians but at the same time, we didn't want a big statue in the middle of a slave trader
"I think it's warranted to pull the statue down after 10 years of asking."
