Argentina rugby union captain Pablo Matera sacked over ‘xenophobic, racist’ tweets

A perceived failure to pay tribute to the late Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona may have been responsible for the “deepdive” into Pablo Matera’s social media history.

Pumas captain Pablo Matera has been axed over old tweets. Picture: Getty Images

A perceived failure to pay tribute to the late Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona may have been responsible for the “deepdive” into Pablo Matera’s social media history that on Tuesday led to his sacking as Pumas’ rugby captain.

Matera’s captaincy was revoked and two other senior Pumas players, Guido Petti and Santiago Socino were suspended followingthe publication back in Argentina of a string of tweets from 2011-13 that showed them in a terrible light. The trio now lookset to miss the final match of the Tri Nations Cup against the Wallabies at Parramatta’s Bankwest Stadium on Saturday.

An official statement from the Union Argentina de Rugby laid bare the damage that Matera’s comments had done in his homeland.

“The Argentine Rugby Union strongly repudiates the discriminatory and xenophobic comments published by members of the LosPumas squad on social networks,” it said.

“Although the messages were expressed between 2011 and 2013 and do not represent the integrity as people that the three showedduring this time in Los Pumas, from the Argentine Rugby Union we condemn any expression of hatred and we consider it unacceptablethat those who express them represent our country.”

In reply, Matera said he was “deeply ashamed” of what he had done. In his tweets, which have been deleted, he spoke of goingfor a drive in his car and running over “negros” – which, while it has been translated as “running over blacks”, in Argentinianslang it can be interpreted in a less derogatory way – while he also has made disparaging remarks about Bolivian and Paraguayandomestic workers.

Socino spoke favourably of apartheid while Petti referred to a domestic worker as “a primate”.

“I’m sorry to everyone who was offended by the barbarisms I wrote,” Matera, 27, wrote on Instagram.

“At that moment, I could never imagine who I would become. Today I have to take responsibility for what I said nine yearsago.”

“I want to apologise as well to my team and to my family for what they are experiencing because of my actions.”

The entire playing group all wore black armbands in honour of the soccer maestro for last weekend’s match against the AllBlacks. And the Pumas were clearly deeply moved when All Black captain Sam Cane advanced on them and laid a “Maradona 10” black jersey in front of the Argentina team before leading his side in the haka.

It was only last month that Matera was being hailed around the rugby world after Australian referee Angus Gardner urged himto show some leadership. Matera replied that the All Blacks were showing him and his countrymen no respect. “I am playingfor my country,” he said.

The Wallabies only became aware of the incident when they turned up for their daily press conference and were alerted by journalists.

“That’s the first that we’ve heard of it,” said tighthead Allan Alaalatoa.

“Pablo being their captain it’s going to be a huge loss. I’m unsure whether he’s just lost his captaincy or whether he’s notgoing to play, but I’m sure all three of those boys will play a vital role in their preparation. Probably their squad willlook to use it as more of a motivation to do those boys proud. That’s the first time we’ve heard about it but thinking aboutit now I’m sure those boys will try to do their country proud.”