Contepomi accuses ‘bully’ Curry of reckless tackle and shoving Argentina coach

Tom Curry found himself at the centre of a storm after England’s win against Argentina, as Felipe Contepomi accused the flanker not only of a “reckless” tackle on Juan Cruz Mallía but of shoving him, the Pumas’ coach, in the tunnel afterwards. Mallía, the full-back, was forced off late on with what is thought to be an anterior cruciate ligament injury, which meant Argentina, who had used all their replacements, had to finish the match with 14 men.
“How old is he?” said Contepomi of Curry. “Twenty-seven? And strong. And I am 48 and he comes and just [shoves me]. I was standing there. He was coming in to say hi to one of our coaches, but we said no because we were upset. I said: ‘Man, you broke his knee,’ and he said: ‘Fuck off,’ and pushed me like that.

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“Maybe that is the way he is, I don’t know him. I am not happy with the situation, after breaking someone’s knee I think you need to be at least humble and respectful enough to say: ‘Sorry, I did something wrong,’ but he did the opposite. Maybe it is his way of being a bully. If we want bullies in this game, good on them. It was a late, late tackle, or reckless.”
Steve Borthwick was quick to defend Curry’s honour. “I’m aware there was an incident,” he said. “I didn’t see it. I was in the changing room. But anybody who has had any contact with Tom Curry knows his character is impeccable. He is a fantastic team man, a respectful guy. His character is unquestionable.”
Contepomi had already been involved in heated exchanges on the touchline over Curry’s tackle, which occurred in the 74th minute, as Argentina were trying to overturn an 11-point deficit. Mallía cleared the ball and was caught late by Curry, an offence for which the Englishman was penalised. No further action was taken. “I am not a good English speaker but I would call [it] reckless. We ended up playing with 14, they ended up with 15 and it was not even checked out. I cannot understand it.”
The altercation came at the end of an ugly few minutes after the final whistle. Curry was embroiled in a quarrel with a number of Argentina’s players, joined quickly by Henry Pollock.
Contepomi was also upset about the use of the instrumented mouthguards (IMGs), or the non-use of the technology by the officials. Twice, his fly-half, Tomás Albornoz, was taken off for a head injury assessment, because he had clapped while holding his gumshield. But it was the lack of action after Pablo Matera’s withdrawal, triggered by the IMG, that worried Contepomi. He felt foul play had been involved and had not been checked by the television match official (TMO).

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“One was 100% the fault of one of our players. But Matera had to come out because it was a head contact. And it wasn’t checked. So, where is the technology going? Or what do we use the technology for? I think that misuse or abuse is not great. The end result is 12 minutes without our player. So, yes, I’m disappointed. Because it’s all good, but there’s been so many checks. And then you hear the TMO talking about knock-ons or ‘it’s passed forward’, and they don’t check that.”