Nations Championship: England rugby players to avoid wearing national shirts in Argentina Football rivals face off at World Cup | Rugby Union News

England’s rugby players have revealed they will avoid wearing the national shirt in Argentina this week, ahead of Saturday’s Nations Championship Test in Santiago del Estero when they face the Pumas.

Steve Borthwick’s side will be in Buenos Aires when the FIFA World Cup semi-final between England and Argentina takes place on Wednesday.

The squad wore England jerseys in support of the football team in their quarter-final against Norway last Saturday, but did so in Liverpool after defeating Fiji earlier in the day.

“I think, given where we are and who we’re playing, we’ve been pretty smart about not wearing our English shirts too much,” lock Alex Coles said. telegraph.

“In Liverpool we went all out on them and we got a slightly better reception than we might here.

“I definitely love my football. I think we have a fair team that does. We watched the previous game at a rooftop bar in Liverpool, after our game at the weekend, and it was great. Everyone was getting really excited.

“We’re very proud to represent our country playing rugby, and I think that translates to the real excitement surrounding watching England at a game and the World Cup fever – it’s like no other with football, right?

“It captures the imagination of the world in a way that no other sport can. It’s really special, and I think it’s the sport I first grew up watching before rugby and cricket, football was the thing I was obsessed with.”

England wing Tommy Freeman says the squad is ready for a “furious” atmosphere and competition against the Pumas on Saturday if England’s footballers win in Atlanta.

“We’ll see how adverse it is,” Freeman said.

“It’s big for Argentina and for us and it’s increased massively coming here. I think they’ll probably be angry if we win so it could be a tough game on Saturday.

“We know they are a passionate country. We are too and they will want to compete to the fullest and we will be ready for that.”