England’s players being peppered with oranges, armed guards with them wherever they went and Union Jack flags being burned in the stands – the 1990 tour to Argentina was one to remember.
If the current England generation are struck by the passion of the Pumas and their supporters on South American soil, rest assured the welcome will be nothing compared to 35 years ago.
The political backdrop, as the first tour undertaken by any English sports team since the Falklands War eight years earlier, meant feelings were running high at the time.
The military junta, which had driven the 1982 invasion of the ‘Malvinas’, had gone but the scars from the 74-day conflict which cost 904 lives – 649 of them Argentinian – remained between the two nations. To say it was fiery inside the grounds and on the pitch itself was an understatement. Off the pitch, there were fears of reprisals. The England players were warned not to go out alone.
For a 21-year-old Tony Underwood, on his first tour with England, it was an eye opener.
“The press were talking Malvinas and in the stadiums it was tribal,” he recalled.
By the team we came back up the stairs onto the pitch for the game, the crowd had been let in. We walked into a cauldron of noise and vitriolic humanity.
The rugby was tough, brutal even. For Underwood, one match stands out in particular – the second game of the tour against Tucuman in the foothills of the Andes.
The playing surface at the José Fierro Stadium was ringed by a 15ft high fence crowned by barbed wire to keep the crowd back. Soldiers with guns and Alsatians added an extra level of menace.
Tucuman, known as the ‘Clockwork Orange’ were notorious for their uncompromising approach on the field and the fury of their fanbase.
“We’d been out for our warm-up before the crowd got in there. There were a couple of banners up ‘welcoming’ us. That was it,” said Underwood.
“We went down into the changing rooms which were sheltered away underground. By the team we came back up the stairs onto the pitch for the game, the crowd had been let in. We walked into a cauldron of noise and vitriolic humanity.
“At Twickenham, being out on the wing I could sometimes hear people in the crowd shouting at me or even talking to each other about the quality of their cucumber sandwiches. There, it was just 80 minutes of incessant noise. You were struggling sometimes to tune it to what was happening on the field. I guess the nearest thing I experienced to it in my career would have been Cardiff for a Six Nations game.”
Except that in Cardiff, the fans do not tend to set fire to the flag of the visiting nation or hurl oranges at opposing players. The orange trees on the way to the stadium were stripped to provide ammunition for fans to throw during the national anthem.
“I managed to dodge them – or at least their throwing wasn’t up to much,” said Underwood.
There was worse to come during the game. England scrum-half Dewi Morris complained to the referee at one point there was a large bath tap, an empty whisky bottle and pair of scissors on the pitch.
They were an unknown commodity to us then because we didn’t have regular exposure to them. Now their stars are playing in the Top 14 and the Premiership and we’re more familiar with them.
The game itself was a running battle, littered with dust-ups and gratuitous violence, which England shaded 19-14.
It was one of only three matches they won on the seven-game tour. The others came in the first Test in Buenos Aires and in a midweek game against Cordoba – an X-rated contest in which the referee blew for half time six minutes early. He was trying to bring some semblance of calm after a mass brawl had erupted when John Olver kicked an opponent in the head as payback after three England players – Tim Rodber, Andy Robinson and Dave Egerton – had needed stitches to head wounds of their own.
“The Argentinians were tough and no-nonsense but they were incredible footballers too,” said Underwood.
“They were an unknown commodity to us then because we didn’t have regular exposure to them. Now their stars are playing in the Top 14 and the Premiership and we’re more familiar with them.
“I don’t think rugby was as big over there then as it is now but the fact that they beat us for the first time in a Test showed they were a good side.”
England manager Geoff Cooke had warned a loss to the Pumas would be an “absolute disaster” but it duly came to pass with a 15-13 defeat in Buenos Aires thanks to five penalties from Hernan Vidou which meant the series was shared.
It was a big moment for Argentina rugby. England were a mix-and-match group with several notable absentees but captain Will Carling travelled, as did his forward lieutenants Brian Moore and Peter Winterbottom, Jeff Probyn and Wade Dooley.
After the trauma of the Calcutta Cup defeat at Murrayfield a few months earlier, it was another blow for Cooke’s team.
Underwood, who went on to win 27 England caps and become a Test Lion in 1997 in South Africa, has never been back to Argentina. Even during a post-rugby career as a commercial pilot before he switched paths to move into consulting a year ago. Yet he remembers the infamous 1990 tour with surprising fondness.
“It was hostile around the games but that made the enjoyment of representing your country even better. Part of the celebration of being involved in sport are these memorable atmospheres and environments and that was memorable. They were occasions – that was the beauty of it. It was almost a privilege to be part of it.
“And when we did meet the Argentinian people, they couldn’t have been friendlier. They were lovely hosts. It was a beautiful country to tour round.”
This time around England’s visit is much shorter – two Test matches in Buenos Aires and San Juan over the next two weekends before moving on to Washington DC and another international against the United States.
The rugby in Argentina will be physical, the backdrop lively – raucous even – but it won’t be the same. Time has moved on, wounds have healed and the ingredients are, thankfully, different this time.
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