Felipe Contepomi has accused England flanker Tom Curry of a 'reckless' tackle on Juan Cruz Mallía and of shoving him, the Argentina coach, in the tunnel after the match. Mallía was forced off late on with what is believed to be an anterior cruciate ligament injury, leaving Argentina to finish the game with 14 men after using all their replacements.
Contepomi said: 'How old is he? 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.' He added: '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.'
England head coach Steve Borthwick defended Curry, saying: 'I'm aware there was an incident. 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.'
The tackle 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, who was penalised but faced no further action. Contepomi said: '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.'
Contepomi also criticised the use of instrumented mouthguards (IMGs), particularly after Pablo Matera was withdrawn due to a head contact that was not checked by the television match official. '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.'
