Sky Sports commentator Joe Wheeler has come under fire for putting on an offensive impersonation of an Asian accent when discussing a Highlanders player.
The moment of madness came following the Highlanders' upset Super Rugby Aotearoa victory over the Crusaders on Friday when he was talking about the southerners' loose forward Kazuki Himeno, who is from Japan.
"Just a word on Kazuki Himeno," Wheeler says on the post-game show. "His first start for the Highlanders in Super Rugby, he was really impressive wasn't he?" "He was really, really good."
The offensive accent came when Wheeler changed the 'r' for an 'l' in the word 'really'.
After Twitter users described Wheeler's comments as "disgraceful" and "disgusting", the former Highlanders player apologised.
"Tonight I stuffed up," Wheeler wrote on Twitter. "I've spoken to Kazuki Himeno and apologised to him and the Highlanders and our Sky crew.
"I absolutely understand this is not the standard expected of our sideline team.
"I've got some work to do obviously, but I'm absolutely committed to doing better."
At the time of writing Sky had not made a comment regarding the incident.
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