Gloucester will remove the Russia flag from the back of Kirill Gotovtsev’s shirt for all matches moving forward and have issued an apology “for any offence this may have caused”.

Gloucester Rugby has been forced to remove a Russian flag from the shirt of one of their players after a complaint from a fan. The Cherry and Whites have operated a policy, since 2015, of rewarding their international stars with the flag of their Test nation on their club shirt.

Gloucester have confirmed they will remove the Russian flag displayed on prop Kirill Gotovtsev’s jersey following backlash on social media, and will also remove all flags on jerseys for this weekend’s clash with the Scarlets.