San Juan, Argentina. July 2024. Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Chandler Cunningham-South are warming up for a Test match when racist slurs begin to rain down from sections of the home crowd. England play on.

England win. But the incident is never forgotten — and now, twelve months later, the same fixture is days away and England's captain Jamie George is spelling out exactly what happens if history repeats itself: his team walks off the pitch. George was in San Juan that day and says the memory will stay with him for life. "It wasn't directed at me — it was directed at my teammates, and I care about my teammates more than anything," he said this week.

England have since lodged a formal complaint with World Rugby, which confirmed the grievance and launched an investigation. Despite that process, no individual perpetrators were ever identified, leaving the matter legally unresolved and the wound very much open. This time, George is not leaving the response to chance. He has been consulting black players in the squad — including Opoku-Fordjour, who is again in the starting line-up alongside Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Noah Caluori and uncapped debutant Immanuel Iyogun — to shape a collective plan.

"I'm a white player and I've never had to experience anything like that," George acknowledged. "This isn't just my call to make." The Argentine Rugby Union has assured England it has taken every possible precaution, and George says he trusts that commitment. Yet trust, on its own, is no longer enough.

A "plan B" exists, it has been discussed at team level, and George is prepared to use it. Whether that contingency is ever triggered may say as much about the state of world rugby as it does about one match in San Juan.