{"id":705968,"date":"2026-07-22T22:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T22:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705968\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T22:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T22:05:12","slug":"loose-pass-los-pumas-drunk-on-football-teams-kool-aid-while-steve-borthwick-is-fooling-nobody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705968\/","title":{"rendered":"Loose Pass: Los Pumas drunk on football team’s ‘Kool-Aid’ while Steve Borthwick is fooling nobody"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with Argentina<\/a>\u2019s rough week, Steve Borthwick\u2019s deflection, an outbreak of disciplinary misses and a literature discovery\u2026<\/p>\n

Argentinean boilovers are becoming a little tiresome<\/p>\n

Passion, very occasional eruptions and heart-on-sleeve expressionism was rarely far away from Felipe Contepomi as a player, so perhaps it is fitting that his Argentina<\/a> team is, by and large, playing in the same manner. Certainly never a dull moment. Yet the weekend past did leave you wondering if perhaps the Pumas had not drunk a little of their soccer team\u2019s Kool-Aid.<\/p>\n

The tight-lipped exit by Contepomi was not his first from a post-match, not even in the past twelve months, nor was the \u2018lack of respect\u2019 accusation which is another that has been trotted out a little too regularly for it to remain credible for long. England<\/a> are often the target of the ire, but it has been by no means restricted to them.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re going to look at lack of respect, we also need to look at the abuse and beer cups being directed at Angus Gardner as he exited the field on Saturday, never mind the players giving him a shove that was more than insignificant as he gave his verdict on that final play.<\/p>\n

The fact is, Argentina don\u2019t currently look like a team on a good trajectory ahead of this year\u2019s truncated July-August schedule, which consists of the two home Tests against Australia rather than the usual Rugby Championship duties. They can bemoan the last-gasp non-try decision all they want, but sinking to a 19-3 deficit \u2013 deficits in games have become just as much of a trait as the stirring comebacks \u2013 was far more to blame for the defeat. The passion the Pumas bring is always welcome, but it is currently channelled far too externally, rather than some proper introspection.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a little difficult to preach respect, too, when the chosen kit reflects one of sport\u2019s most controversial victories over the opposition \u2013 a different sport \u2013 from some 40 years ago, not to mention the unseemly pot-stirring about past military conflicts between the two countries from small sections of fans. Put together many of those aspects and the picture is of a team and management that has become a little too tantrum-prone when things do not go their way.<\/p>\n

Brian Moore warns World Rugby will be \u2018abrogating its responsibilities\u2019 if they \u2018make light\u2019 of serious accusations against Argentina<\/a><\/p>\n

Nobody fooled by Borthwick\u2019s deflections<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think now is the time to be digging into that,\u201d replied Steve Borthwick<\/a> rather testily when asked about his team\u2019s four yellow cards in Saturday\u2019s Tests. He also labelled the travelling press crew the \u2018negativity committee\u2019 for not focusing enough on the tries scored and the positives.<\/p>\n

And well, you know, it\u2019s not easy to travel as much as the English team has, especially at the back end of a torturously long season and go and pull out a win in that atmosphere. Hats off, for sure.<\/p>\n

But nor is it beyond the realms of expectation to consider that observers of England rugby, who have been harbouring understandable concerns about the team\u2019s trajectory for some time, might have some awkward questions for the coaches of a team which was cruising at 19-3 ahead and then saw four players yellow-carded as well as almost seeing the game snatched from them by a distinctly average Pumas team.<\/p>\n

England did score some good tries but the game was just as low on quality as it was high on tension. Borthwick\u2019s desire for nothing but starry-eyed positivity was far at odds with what unfolded on the pitch and it should fool nobody: England still have numerous questions to answer, the only one well-answered on Saturday was the one about being able to hang on under pressure.<\/p>\n

England greats slam \u2018disgraceful\u2019 and \u2018pathetic\u2019 Argentina as World Rugby urged to act after racist abuse was \u2018brushed under the rug\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

When is an assault high-end then?<\/p>\n

Two incidents from the weekend\u2019s action defied belief for the way they were handled, during, but particularly after the game.<\/p>\n

How Luke Jacobsen has not been cited even is a mystery<\/a>, never mind the red card his human missile act warranted. The ruling that James Ryan \u2018jammed his arm\u2019 as mitigation just makes no sense at all: Jacobsen\u2019s arm was never in a position, nor showing the movement that suggested he was going to wrap his target.<\/p>\n

And then the head-butt by England U20\u2019s Seb Kelly was, at the disciplinary hearing, deemed to be mid-range<\/a>, which invites some justifiable questions about what top-range would need to be, not least because Kelly staggeringly tried to argue he was in a clearing-out motion.<\/p>\n

Mitigation usually is allowed for moments of contrition by an offender; Kelly\u2019s pleas were anything but contrite for an action hitherto only performed once that Loose Pass<\/a> can remember: Bakkies Botha\u2019s nut of Jimmy Cowan more than a decade ago. One can only assume that for a head-butt to actually be top end, you need to have some sort of Begbie-style crunch.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Plenty of offences that are accidents receive yellow cards these days, and we wish it would stop. But when we get such clear-cut red card incidents such as Jacobsen\u2019s, we really wish those would be called right as well.<\/p>\n

Rating every England player from the 2026 Nations Championship: Fin Smith \u2018settles key debate\u2019 as Henry Pollock leaves Steve Borthwick with \u2018major dilemma\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

A must-read for coaches<\/p>\n

Loose Pass spent a week in South Africa this week, and had eyes turned by a new book in local bookshops called \u2018Attack, Attack, Attack\u2019 by the father and son duo of Alan Zondagh and AB Zondagh.<\/p>\n

A virtual library of attacking moves and philosophy, well-illustrated and with illuminating depth of explanation for all the concepts, it ought to be a must-have for all aspiring coaches around the world who are seeking a little pep in the attacking play of their teams.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Winners and losers: Springboks squad in \u2018rude health\u2019 as Rassie Erasmus is bolstered by \u2018world-class\u2019 returnees while Evan Roos is snubbed for All Blacks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with Argentina\u2019s rough week, Steve Borthwick\u2019s deflection, an outbreak of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[14632,309,242,348,3482,11162,134497,620,50,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-705968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-argentina","tag-england","tag-features","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-loose-pass","tag-nations-championship","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705968","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=705968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}