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Pablo Matera has been revoked of the Pumas captaincy. The UAR has taken action in response to tweets from 2011-2012 that surfaced today that were discriminatory and xenophobic.
The 27-year-old Matera recently captained Argentina to a historic victory over New Zealand. He is now no longer the skipper of Los Pumas and faces an uncertain playing future on the international stage.
En primer lugar, revocar la capitanía de Pablo Matera y solicitar al staff que proponga a la Mesa Directiva un nuevo capitán.
— Unión Argentina de Rugby (@unionargentina) December 1, 2020
The UAR revoked Matera of the captaincy and has asked that the coaching staff name a new captain. Matera replaced Agustín Creevy as captain. Creevy is not with the team in Australia. Rather, he is now based in England, playing for London Irish.
Scrum-half Tomás Cubelli has filled-in as captain in the past. He is with the team now, though has been ruled-out of Saturday’s Tri Nations match against Australia. There are additional options that can be identified. Namely, Matías Alemanno, Jerónimo de la Fuente, Julián Montoya, and Matías Orlando.
Of the four players there trained in the starting formation on Monday. The one player who did not do so is Jerónimo de la Fuente. He was the Jaguares captain in 2019 and 2020. Of the remaining three Montoya and Orlando both have captaincy experience and are expected to start.
En segundo lugar, suspender a Pablo Matera, a Guido Petti y a Santiago Socino del seleccionado nacional hasta tanto se defina su situación disciplinaria.
— Unión Argentina de Rugby (@unionargentina) December 1, 2020
Pablo Matera, Guido Petti, and Santiago Socino have been suspended. Their status will remain as such until their disciplinary situation has been determined. A disciplinary process will be opened by the UAR to investigate the three players.
The UAR finalized their release by noting the following:
“Although the messages were expressed a few years ago and do not represent the integrity as people that the three players have demonstrated during this time in Los Pumas, from the Unión Argentina de Rugby we condemn any expression of hatred and we consider it unacceptable that those who express them represent our country.”
