Pepper warns England face chaotic Buenos Aires exit if Argentina reach World Cup final

England could face serious travel disruption on their journey home from Argentina if the host nation reaches Sunday’s football World Cup final, with flanker Guy Pepper warning that celebrating crowds could make reaching the airport near-impossible.

England are currently based in Buenos Aires ahead of Saturday’s one-off Nations Championship Test against Argentina in Santiago del Estero — a fixture that carries real weight given England’s recent run of just one win in six Tests.

“When they won it in 2022, the whole street outside our hotel was absolutely rammed,” Pepper said. “We might struggle to get on the plane back.”

The squad is set to watch Argentina’s football World Cup semi-final at their team hotel on Wednesday, meaning the potential chaos is not entirely hypothetical.

Beyond the off-field drama, Pepper offered a measured assessment of what England must do to silence the famously passionate Pumas support on the pitch. Having made his Test debut as a replacement in La Plata and San Juan during last year’s tour, the 23-year-old Leicester flanker had a bench-side view of how quickly the atmosphere can shift.

“It was very much football-crowd type mentality out there, which was cool to experience and different,” Pepper said. “It was noisy, but you were also able to shut them up by outscoring them. It was a real rollercoaster of emotion. Being on the bench for the two games, you could take in the fact that they’re all chanting and jumping around one minute and then you can hear a pin drop the next.”

England’s tours to Argentina have historically coincided with British and Irish Lions years, providing a platform for emerging talent. Tom Curry and Sam Underhill announced themselves on the 2017 expedition, and last year’s trip served a similar purpose for Pepper, Seb Atkinson, Alex Coles, and Joe Heyes — all of whom are expected to retain their places in the starting XV named by head coach Steve Borthwick on Thursday.

“On reflection, the 2025 Argentina tour was quite significant for this group, particularly with the Lions guys being away,” Pepper said. “It was a pretty cool and special moment for us, an important step to breed new young players and allow them to make a name for themselves and keep the jersey.”

With the Nations Championship now shaping the stakes of what was once a developmental fixture, Borthwick will be looking for a performance rather than an experiment — and Pepper believes the groundwork from twelve months ago has left this group better equipped to deliver one.