England captain Jamie George has said that walking off the field is being “considered” by the squad should any of their players suffer racial abuse against Argentina.
It comes after the skipper faced the media before Saturday’s Nations Championship match in Santiago del Estero, the final game of the first leg of the inaugural tournament.
In 2025 England defeated Los Pumas in San Juan but the Test was marred by England replacements Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Chandler Cunningham-South being abused.
No love lost
There was no love lost too in the November showdown at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham when Argentina head coach Felipe Contepomi and England flank Tom Curry clashed.
Adding further fuel to the fire ahead of Saturday’s kick off is the recent football World Cup semi-final game between Argentina and England, which the former nation won 2-1.
Regarding the subject of racial abuse, George admitted the team has had discussions about their reaction to such a possibility and responded to the potential walk-off scenario.
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“It’s something being considered,” he said. “If anything like that happened then it deserves the strongest of reactions. There is no place for that in the world and I feel incredibly strongly about that.
“We’ve had discussions around ‘what if?’. I really hope – and I’m optimistic – that the Argentinian Rugby Union has taken it very seriously. At the same time we’ve got a plan B if that doesn’t happen.
“The first thing we’d do is make the referee aware of what we’ve seen so it can be properly logged and all the protocols can go into play. What we do outside of that we’re still deciding.”
Formulating a plan
George, who starts at hooker once again this week as England look to back up their handsome win over Fiji, recalled the incident from San Juan, saying it hit him hard.
“It’s something I will remember for the rest of my life when I heard what had happened – and it wasn’t directed at me,” he said.
“It was directed at my team-mates and I care about my team-mates more than anything.
“I will continue to have conversations with a select group of players from different ethnic backgrounds and we will come up with a plan.”
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