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Juan Pablo Socino is one of 13 players who have been sanctioned by the RFU as a result of their breach of protocol that led to the cancellation of the Barbarians match against England in October. The players were twice caught leaving quarantine to socialise at local establishments, on the second occasion doing so after being explicitly instructed to stay at their hotel.
Socino has been suspended for a total of four weeks – two each for the COVID breach and providing a ‘false account’ when questioned. He has also been mandated to complete 60 hours of community work to be completed before October 19 of next year.
The original COVID breach sanction was 10 weeks which was reduced by half as a result of “timely acceptance of culpability.” A further three weeks were suspended pending the completion of the community work. The sanctions are consistent with the other players involved, many of whom are Saracens teammates. San Diego Legion signing Chris Robshaw and Canada’s World Cup assistant coach Richard Wigglesworth were also among the guilty parties.
An official account of the incident was posted by the RFU:
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The players were provided with a variety of facilities in their hotel including a dining room and social area with pool, table tennis and other games. They could drink alcohol within the Barbarian camp environment at the hotel. Players were also given permission to go into Hyde Park in groups of no more than three to get fresh air, they were required to provide WhatsApp notifications on departure and return. Players were repeatedly reminded of their obligations under the code of conduct by both Barbarian management and the COVID Manager.
On the afternoon of 20 October Robshaw, Wray and Wigglesworth left the hotel to go for takeaway drinks from the Footman pub in Mayfair and drank them outside. Later they moved into the pub where they were joined by Lewington, Socino, McFadden and Kerrod, contrary to Tier 2 regulations then in place in London.
The panel was told; “We knew this was not technically permitted Code of Conduct of government Tier , so to avoid any confrontation we left the hotel via a fire exit.”
CCTV footage showed the group returning through a fire exit. The seven players had not sought or been given permission to leave the hotel. The trip was undiscovered until Friday 23 October 2020.
On 21 October 2020 there were further breaches of the Code of Conduct. Wray had approached the Barbarian management to ask if the group could visit Sergio’s restaurant. The request was denied as indoor restaurants were not permitted under the Code of Conduct of government Tier 2 protocols. Later that day, 12 players left the team hotel and went to Hush bar in Mayfair, The Running Horse pub and Sergio’s restaurant.
When asked where they had been the players said they left the hotel to eat out at McDonald’s and sat in Berkeley Square drinking takeaways.
