Reports from South America said other players were threatening to go on strike if Matera, Guido Petti and Santiago Socino were not reinstated for Saturday’s final Tri-Nations clash against the Wallabies at Bankwest Stadium.But after meeting with the players union, the UAR stuck to its guns and averted a potential revolt by ruling that the three men would not be allowed to play this weekend as punishment for their repugnant comments.
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However, the UAR said it will recommend that they be reinstated next year once a full disciplinary hearing is completed, as they had shown remorse for their actions and had not reoffended.“The Disciplinary Committee has considered and assessed the attitude of the three players during this process, and understands that they have not repeated similar actions during these more than eight years, and that they have shown during this time to be people with firm and upright values, worthy of being part of our team,” the UAR said in a statement.Pumas coach Mario Ledesma said everyone involved in Argentine rugby was “ashamed” of the players for the hateful postings they made when they were teenagers, but he argued they still deserved a second chance.“These are three fine players and great men and they are great human beings,” Ledesma said.“They’ve been suffering a lot this week, their families have suffered a lot this week and it’s really sad to see.“Obviously they acknowledge what they did and they are really regretful and ashamed with what they did, and we all are, but what I can say is they’re not the same people that they were at 17 or 18 years old.“They are great men, family men, Pablo has a kid, he’s a great leader and a great example, too.”The three players were immediately stood down once the old tweets resurfaced this week after the Pumas were criticised for not showing enough respect to Argentina soccer legend Diego Maradona after his sudden death last week.Ledesma has borne the brunt of criticism in a meteoric fall from grace, just weeks after he was proclaimed as a national hero in Argentina after leading the Pumas to a historic first-ever win over New Zealand.

That was followed by a hard-fought draw against the Wallabies but the wheels fell off in last weekend’s 38-0 loss to the All Blacks – a result which has left neither Australia or Argentina with any real hope of winning the championship.“It’s been an emotional rollercoaster,” Ledesma said. (Matera has had) Not a lot of sleep. A lot of abuse.“Pablo won’t be playing this game but he’s still the captain.”Experienced centre Jeronimo de la Fuente will take over as captain against the Wallabies.
PUMAS
15-Santiago Carreras, 14-Bautista Delguy, 13-Matias Orlando, 12-Jerónimo de la Fuente (captain), 11-Emiliano Boffelli, 10-Nicolas Sanchez, 9-Felipe Ezcurra, 8-Rodrigo Bruni, 7-Facundo Isa, 6-Santiago Grondona, 5-Marcos Kremer, 4-Matias Alemanno, 3-Francisco Gomez Kodela, 2-Julian Montoya, 1-Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro.
RESERVES
16-Jose Luis Gonzalez, 17-Mayco Vivas, 18-Juan Pablo Zeiss, 19-Lucas Paulos, 20-Francisco Gorrissen, 21-Gonzalo Bertranou, 22-Domingo Miotti, 23-Santiago Chocobares
How Maradona snub destroyed rugby’s modern-day hero

-Jamie Pandaram
In the space of three weeks, Pablo Matera has gone from one of the world’s great backrowers who inspired history, to being exposed as a shocking racist and sexist, stripped of the Argentinian captaincy.What a great shame.Like most rugby fans around the world, I was in awe of the man who put the Pumas on his back and carried them to the famous 25-15 win over the All Blacks on November 14.

His man-of-the-match effort, his defiant message to the referee that “They must show some respect, I play for my country” while tugging the national emblem on his jersey, his fierce expression holding the ball after a crucial penalty turnover near the end of the match. We all understood why he was captain; this is a guy others want to go to war with.But on Tuesday, Matera’s ugly past caught up with him.

Social media posts from 2011 to 2013, making vile remarks about black people and women, were suddenly cast into the public eye despite Matera deleting his Twitter account in an attempt to hide his comments.The 27-year-old issued an apology for the “atrocities I wrote”, but there was no chance the Argentinian officials were going to allow him to take the field this Saturday against Australia with the public aware of what he’s put out for public consumption.In fact, the posts were highlighted by Argentinians, presumably a reaction to the deluge of positive publicity Matera has enjoyed of late.To transcribe his posts literally on Google doesn’t quite get across the context or explain the slang expression.

A selection of four of Matera’s posts were shown to a Spanish translator by The Daily Telegraph, who read them thus:“Nice morning to go out in the car and run over black people.”“South Africa baby, finally I’m leaving a country full of blacks … OUCH”.“Abdominals on a skinny man is like tits on a fat chick. Doesn’t count.”“A fat chick won’t stop staring at me hahaha, poor fat chick, I’m not going to give her my seat, that is not a pregnancy, no no that doesn’t count”.News Corp Australia has chosen to publish these words to highlight the repugnant, unacceptable content of his words. There can be no sugar-coating this.It must be called out for exactly what it is – vile racism and sexism – with no ambiguity that allows excuse-makers to claim the remarks aren’t as bad as the punishment forthcoming.Indeed, Matera was a much younger man when he made these disgusting comments.

He said on Instagram: “I had a tougher time. I am very ashamed. Apologies to all those who were offended by the atrocities I wrote.“At that moment I did not imagine who I was going to become. Today I have to take charge of what I said 9 years ago.“I’m also sorry to my team and my family for the moment they are going through my actions and thanks to the people who love me for their support.”But these awful remarks weren’t in some private chat group – they were made for the world to see.That it took so long for the material to surface is another alarming aspect of the story – some on social media reposted it because they felt Argentina’s rugby team did not do enough to honour football legend Diego Maradona after he passed away last week.
Tri Nations: The Wallabies were not happy after Pumas skipper Pablo Matera pulled the hair of Brandon Paenga-Amosa.
But as young and dumb as he may have been at the time, Matera must accept the consequences, as any politician or CEO would have to do.He is a leader, the face of Argentinian rugby to the world, and from now on he’ll be known as much for these posts as he will for becoming the first man to lead Los Pumas to a win over the All Blacks.Matera is not the only one, Argentina revealed in a statement: “The Argentine Rugby Union strongly repudiates the discriminatory and xenophobic comments published by members of the Los Pumas team on social networks and meeting urgently, the Board of Directors resolves: First, revoke Pablo Matera’s captaincy and request the staff to propose a new captain to the Board of Directors.

“Second, suspend Pablo Matera, Guido Petti and Santiago Socino from the national team until their disciplinary situation is defined.“Third, initiate a disciplinary process for the three mentioned players, in charge of the Disciplinary Commission of the Argentine Rugby Union.“Although the messages were expressed between 2011 and 2013 and do not represent the integrity as people that the three showed during this time in Los Pumas, from the Argentine Rugby Union we condemn any expression of hatred and consider it unacceptable.”Within days, Argentina has lost an icon in Maradona, and the goodwill of becoming iconic rugby history-makers.



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