England are due to play Argentina in the World Cup semis on Wednesday (Image: Getty)
Tensions are running high before the World Cup semi-final between England and Argentina and even international sportsmen aren’t immune. While Thomas Tuchel and his players prepare to take on Lionel Messi and Co in Atlanta, members of the England rugby squad will – under instructions from their boss – avoid wearing clothing bearing the national team’s badge while out and about.
There’s a logical reason behind the decision and it’s nothing to do with Falklands tensions, despite Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni batting away concerns on that front. The rugby squad are currently in Argentina themselves as they prepare for their own meeting with the Pumas on Saturday. The Telegraph reports head coach Steve Borthwick has altered the players’ training schedule to allow them to watch Wednesday’s semi from their team hotel. However, wearing England colours out in public in the lead-up to the match is considered a step too far, though security concerns are not said to be severe enough to warrant any additional protection.
“I think, bearing in mind where we are and who we’re playing with, we’ve been pretty sensible about not wearing our English shirts around too much,” England lock Alex Coles said. “We had them all out in Liverpool and got a bit of a better reception than we might do here.”
Coles also reflected on his own past meeting with Tuchel and the hard work the German has drummed into the players en route to Wednesday’s semi. “He’s a pragmatist, but he’s also very good at motivating his players,” the 26-year-old added.
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“And I think you see how hard everyone works, and he’s picked players that want to work for the team. I mean, very impressed. Like Elliot Anderson just works his socks off the whole game. Declan Rice through injuries and illness, puts himself about.
“I think there’s so much to be admired in that as a trait. And as an Englishman, you want to think that’s something that’s part of our national psyche, that sort of hard work, that determination, and then obviously the quality of [Jude] Bellingham and [Harry] Kane has just been there to top off, and [Bukayo] Saka as well, as an Arsenal fan, I shout him out.”
Alex Coles has spoken about the impact made by the England football team (Image: Getty)
England and Argentina haven’t met on the football pitch in more than 20 years. Michael Owen scored a late winner in a 2005 friendly, while the last competitive meeting came at the World Cup 2002 and was decided by a David Beckham penalty.
The two nations have met much more recently at the Rugby Union World Cup. They faced off twice at the most recent edition, in 2023, with England winning 27-10 in the pool stage and also beating the South Americans by a narrower margin in the third-place play-off.
Heading into Wednesday’s game, Scaloni played down the Falklands backdrop. “The reality is that this is a football match. I can’t mix things up, especially out of respect for what happened so many years ago,” he said.
“It was a very sad period in our history, and there isn’t much we can do about it, that’s the reality. It is a football match. There’s no getting around that.
“Things are happening elsewhere in the world, and we criticise the existence of war, so for me to start saying this is anything more than a football match… it seems crazy to me. We certainly remember those people, of course. But it is a football match, we shouldn’t confuse the two.”