Argentina head coach Felipe Contepomi accused England’s Tom Curry of being a “bully” and shoving and swearing at him as tempers flared at Twickenham.
Contepomi was left fuming after flanker Curry’s late 74th-minute tackle on full-back Juan Cruz Mallia, which he described as “reckless”, as tensions boiled over on the pitch and in the tunnel after England’s dramatic 27-23 win over the Pumas on Sunday.
“I don’t know where to start with it because I don’t know if it was reckless or how would you describe it”, Contepomi said in his post-match press conference.
“I am not a good English speaker, but I would call it reckless. We ended up playing with 14 [men], they ended up with 15, and it was not even checked out.
“And Curry, let me say, it's not only that, because probably it's part of his nature to bully people, but he came off in the tunnel, and he gave me a little smack. I'm 48 (years old).”
Asked to clarify what had happened between him and Curry in the tunnel, Contepomi agreed, when probed, that the 27-year-old had allegedly shoved him rather than smacked him, but said his behaviour should not be rewarded.
“(It was) not a smack, (it was) a push, a hit here on the chest,” he said. “So maybe it is his nature, I don't know. Probably those are the guys we are rewarding and we praise. Maybe that’s where we want rugby to go, I don’t know.
“Luckily, probably there are cameras there, so I'll show it and say maybe they see it as nothing, no incident.
“(England team manager) Richard Hill was there, so you can ask him if you want. I was standing there, he came, he was coming in, he went to say hi to one of our coaches, Fernando, and Fernando said, ‘no, no,’ because we were upset, he was reckless and broke our player's knee.
“I know it's rugby, but if we don't look after each other in rugby, it could be dangerous. And when he came and he was coming there, and I said, ‘man, you broke the knee’, (and Curry said) ‘f**k off’, and pushed me like that.
“Now, I would say I'm not happy with the situation. After breaking someone's knee, I think you need to be at least humble enough and respectful to say sorry I did something wrong, and yeah, sorry, but he went the opposite (way).
“So, maybe it's his way of being a bully. Now, if we want bullies in this game, good on them.”
Contepomi added that he believed Mallia had suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury as a result of Curry’s tackle that left Argentina to finish the game a man down after they had already emptied their bench.
“We don't know, but clinically, it looks like an ACL, but we need to check it, you know, we need to check it,” he said. “So I don't want to be pressurised and give you a diagnosis that it's not, but he's limping and sore and couldn't keep [in] the game, you know, so you saw him.”
England head coach Steve Borthwick said he had not seen the incident between Curry and Contepomi as he was already back in the dressing room.
“I didn't see it,” he said. “I wasn't there. I was in the changing room at the time.
“I'm aware of it. I wouldn't want that, in any instance, to be the centre of attention of what was a tough, hard Test match, where two teams really went at it for the afternoon. That's all I've got to say, really, about it.”
Asked about Contepomi’s comments on Curry being a bully, Borthwick called the Sale flanker’s character “impeccable”.
“I think that anybody in this room who has had any contact with Tom Curry knows, as a character of a man, his character is impeccable,” he said. “He's a fantastic team man and a very respectful guy. I think Tom Curry's character is unquestionable.”
