Argentina’s Pablo Matera says controversial tweets from his past ‘do not represent his values in any way’.
The Argentina Rugby Union currently continues to undertake a ‘full investigation’ into racist and xenophobic social media comments attributed to Matera and two senior players Guido Petti and hooker Santiago Sociono several years ago.
ALSO READ: What Matera wrote on Twitter
Matera was initially stripped of the team’s captaincy when the news broke in early December, while the loose forward, Petti and Socino did not feature against the Wallabies in their final Tri-Nations Test of the year.
However, it later appeared that the trio were unlikely to face any future long-term sanctions amid reports of a threatened player strike.
It now remains to be seen what comes of the investigation that was later launched by the ARU.
‘I imagine there are a lot of people who have felt offended, hurt and I would like to ask their forgiveness,’ Matera told Canal Plus. ‘It was a really bad use of social media with my friends from high school. I just want to let people know that I don’t believe any of these words, that they do not represent my values in any way.
‘At the time of these tweets, I was an immature boy, quite a rebellious boy,’ added Matera. ‘I was not an easy child to raise for my mother. A lot of time has passed, and when I look back I see how much I have grown as a person.’
