Very quickly, last Friday, after the heavy defeat against the All Blacks (44-6), the Argentine players tried to plan for the small final. “It’s very painful,” said Juan Cruz Mallia in the mixed zone. Everyone is sad in the locker room because we really believed we had a great opportunity to reach the final. We’re going to spend the evening evacuating, digesting. From tomorrow, we will have to re-mobilize because it is not the same thing to leave the World Cup winning or losing. »
The Pumas full-back, who plays at Stade Toulousain, is one of the team’s leaders, one of Julian Montoya’s vice-captains with Pablo Matera, currently injured. A link between two generations, that of the elders (Agustin Creevy, Nicolas Sanchez, Jeronimo de la Fuente) who will bow out and that of the young people, he knows the importance of the match this Friday evening: “Argentina has already played two small finals. One team finished third (in 2007) and another fourth (in 2015), our result will serve as a basis for those who follow. »
“We are like a shadow around them. They have to write their own story.”
Agustin Pichot, captain of the Pumas in 2007
Obviously, he insists on his link with the “Bronze Pumas”, the same as all those of his generation. He was eleven years old when Argentina finished third in the World Cup in France… “2007 had such an impact on us,” he says. We want to do the same, inspire future generations. » He knows the influence of the former Pumas on Argentine rugby; Felipe Contepomi and Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe are part of the current staff and, to announce their selection to the thirty-three elected officials, last August, Michael Cheika asked all the others to call one player each. Agustin Pichot, Rodrigo Roncero and Juan Martin Hernandez had warned Montoya, Gomez Kodela, Sanchez… “We are a bit like a shadow around them,” says Pichot, the former captain. They must now write their own history. »
So, after a weekend of rest, an asado and a change of hotel (theirs, in Rueil-Malmaison, was picked up by the All Blacks on Sunday afternoon), they prepared to return to England, their tormentor of the first match (27-10) in Marseille. “Personally, I don’t consider this match as a revenge,” said Mallia, “I don’t care who is opposite. As our dream was to reach the final, we decided to prepare for this match as if it were one. » They will have to offer something other than last Friday against New Zealand to make us forget the bronze Pumas.
