{"id":279667,"date":"2025-11-23T23:04:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T23:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/279667\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T23:04:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T23:04:03","slug":"contepomi-accuses-bully-curry-of-reckless-tackle-and-shoving-argentina-coach-england-rugby-union-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/279667\/","title":{"rendered":"Contepomi accuses \u2018bully\u2019 Curry of reckless tackle and shoving Argentina coach | England rugby union team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Curry found himself at the centre of a storm after England\u2019s win against Argentina<\/a>, as Felipe Contepomi accused the flanker not only of a \u201creckless\u201d tackle on Juan Cruz Mall\u00eda but of shoving him, the Pumas\u2019 coach, in the tunnel afterwards. Mall\u00eda, 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow old is he?\u201d said Contepomi of Curry. \u201cTwenty-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: \u2018Man, you broke his knee,\u2019 and he said: \u2018Fuck off,\u2019 and pushed me like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe that is the way he is, I don\u2019t know him. I am not happy with the situation, after breaking someone\u2019s knee I think you need to be at least humble and respectful enough to say: \u2018Sorry, I did something wrong,\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Borthwick was quick to defend Curry\u2019s honour. \u201cI\u2019m aware there was an incident,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Juan Cruz Mall\u00eda is forced off the pitch after the tackle by Tom Curry. Photograph: David Rogers\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Contepomi had already been involved in heated exchanges on the touchline over Curry\u2019s tackle, which occurred in the 74th minute, as Argentina were trying to overturn an 11-point deficit. Mall\u00eda cleared the ball and was caught late by Curry, an offence for which the Englishman was penalised. No further action was taken. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s players, joined quickly by Henry Pollock.<\/p>\n

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, Tom\u00e1s 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\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n

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Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne was 100% the fault of one of our players. But Matera had to come out because it was a head contact. And it wasn\u2019t 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\u2019m disappointed. Because it\u2019s all good, but there\u2019s been so many checks. And then you hear the TMO talking about knock-ons or \u2018it\u2019s passed forward\u2019, and they don\u2019t check that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Curry found himself at the centre of a storm after England\u2019s win against Argentina, as Felipe Contepomi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-279667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}