What is heartening is that los Pumas have managed to withstand the upheaval of Covid, the disbanding of their Super Rugby franchise, los Jaguares, and come together once again to show the world that rugby is very much a high-achieving sport in the country. They have much to offer even if, to me, they do not quite have the world-class quality of that 2007 vintage. I don’t want this to end.”įor it not to end on Friday night (a bronze place play-off notwithstanding), Argentina will have to deliver the performance of a lifetime. It was far from perfect but life is not perfect. “We like to be a team that fights for everything. Pumas captain, the never-say-die hooker, Julian Montoya, articulated the power of the collective. “All those who accompany us in this dream,” said full-back, Juan Cruz Mallia, in tribute to family and supporters. Listen to the Pumas in the aftermath of the quarter-final victory and you can gauge is being tapped into. Well, they are not the only ones drawing on such profound forces. Such a sense of who they are and where they came from are powerful motivating factors as was seen against Ireland. Much is made of New Zealand’s legacy, the paying of due loyalty to those who have gone before, leaving the black jersey in a better state than they first received it, an invested obligation to aim high. Inflation is running at 114% and rising.Īnd even if the Pumas players are very much among the country’s elite as far as salaries are concerned, they all bear testimony to their roots and to the people they represent. Much as we moan here about politics and the economy it is as nothing compared to the turmoil that passes for governance in Argentina. Los Portenos have to deal with hardship and hassle every day of the week. We now spend two to three months a year there visiting family. My eldest son headed off to Buenos Aires for a five or six-week post-university trip some 14 years ago. (Photo by Gaspafotos/MB Media/Getty Images) Julián Montoya of Argentina leads the team out. You only have to watch the emotion-drenched faces of the players as they line-up for the pre-match anthem with its slow build towards a tub-thumping climax to see what representing their country means to them.Įven a month after Messi led the World Cup parade last December, truncated as the team bus only managed about a kilometre from the airport before aborting due to the crush, it was possible to sense the vibe on the streets of the capital city with Messi-murals etched and flags still flying. But if los Pumas were to repeat the feat, a taller order indeed than even Lionel Messi’s men faced, there would be delirium back home. And it is, which is why there were several million thronging the streets of Buenos Aires. You only had to see the wild, communal scenes of delight that greeted Argentina’s triumph at the football World Cup last year, a rather larger yet no less chaotic and spontaneous scene of mass celebration as we witnessed in the bowels of the Stade de France 16 years ago when Agustin Pichot’s own ‘band of brothers,’ confirmed their new-found status on the world stage.Īh, but football is Argentina’s game you might say. How could it not be this way given that their players are so rarely together as they are forced to ply their trade overseas? They appear all the stronger for having to deal with set-backs and adversity. With Argentina, though, it’s somehow different, somehow more meaningful. New Zealand certainly summoned something from deep within to withstand Ireland’s 37-phase last-shot-for-glory attack on Saturday night, likewise the Springboks. Of course, every team would claim to have ‘spirit,’ a sense of each other as well as a shared destiny.
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