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'Are you the same person you were nine years ago?' - Ex-Pumas lock leaps to Matera's defence

(Photo by Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

Former Argentina lock Patricio Albacete has defended his compatriots Pablo Matera, Guido Petti and Santiago Socino following the revelation of historical tweets that were deemed offensive, while also responding to accusations about tweets he himself made in 2013.

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This comes after the Argentina Rugby Union revoked Matera’s captaincy and suspended him along with Petti and Socino for posting what were described as “discriminatory and xenophobic” posts between 2011 and 2013.

The 57-cap Albacete, who played five Tests alongside Matera at the end of his career in 2013, was also dragged into this affair by Argentinian journalist Pablo Duggan, who referenced offensive tweets posted by the 39-year-old seven years ago. 

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Australia look ahead to final round clash with Argentina

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Australia look ahead to final round clash with Argentina

“The tweets of (Albacete)… they show that the discrimination and xenophobia of Los Pumas come from before this generation,” wrote Duggan.

Albacete responded with a Twitter thread defending himself and the three players in question, admitting that it was a serious mistake they made but also stressing that they were 17 years of age at the time. 

He said: “Please if you are going to say anything about me, trying to get me dirty and taking things completely out of context, at least try to inform yourself well. Do not report only what they send you… you speak very badly of yourself and your profession!

“Do you really think I can discriminate based on just a wheel of old jokes from seven years ago that I didn’t even do? It was enough to look at the photos of my French brothers and friends in my networks since they like to investigate…

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“The Los Pumas players who made the tweets made a SERIOUS mistake, apologised, were suspended and will be punished for them. Tweets they wrote when they were 17…

“However, his behaviour in front of the Argentine team has always been correct. In fact, just two weeks ago, they were praised by everyone after the resounding victory against NZ, especially Pablo, for giving his jersey to a very emotional child.

“They made a very serious mistake without a doubt. But are you the same person you were nine years ago? It would be good if we were as demanding as you are, with everyone’s files… so what seems strange to me is that they have decided to bring them to light just now…” 

The punishment handed to the trio is yet to be revealed, but Matera and his two Argentina teammates will miss the Pumas’ final match of the Tri-Nations against Australia this Saturday. 

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This is a sour twist in the fortunes of the national team, who only two weeks ago were experiencing the euphoria of beating the All Blacks for the first time, for which the 27-year-old Matera was eternised for his impassioned display. 

Since then, they have also come under fire for not honouring Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona appropriately, who died last week aged 60.

 

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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