Felipe Contepomi, boss of the Pumas side chosen as warm-up act for the British & Irish Lions, has revealed how his charges have been inspired by Lionel Messi and his world champion footballing team-mates.
Contepomi has only two training sessions and a captain’s run to get his depleted team ready for the challenge of facing Andy Farrell’s Australia-bound tourists in Dublin on Friday evening.
He knows only too well the size of the challenge, having captained Argentina in the same fixture against Sir Clive Woodward’s 2005 Lions – and famously holding them to a draw.
He is not daunted given many of his players have experience of beating South Africa, routing Australia and even winning in New Zealand in the past year.
“We are going through a football honeymoon”
The former Leinster playmaker, back on familiar ground in the Irish capital, takes further confidence from the inspiring example set by his country’s footballers who, he says, have become role models to his players.
“The soccer players give us a lot of support,” he says. “Sometimes they send a video. I think there’s that synergy of being Argentinian. It doesn’t matter the code – soccer, rugby, basketball – you are Argentinian.
“In our country we are going through a football honeymoon. Argentina is the best team at the moment: world champions, two times South American champions. We are probably at the best-ever soccer moment in our lives, in Argentinian history.
“They are so consistent and, honestly, it is an honour to watch them. They are a good example and inspiring for us because of the way they behave. The way [Lionel] Messi behaves, the way the manager [Lionel] Scaloni behaves, everyone.
“Not only are they, for me, one of the best teams ever in soccer history, but they are so consistent: winning, behaving, playing well, bringing young players through.”
This is important to Contepomi as his philosophy aligns with Scaloni when it comes to attention to detail.
“The result is made by a lot of variables,” he explains. “The only one we control is our variable: how we prepare, how we behave on and off the pitch – and how we live together. That’s what we are trying to get better at.
“An extraordinary thing is not done by one extraordinary action, but 1,000 small little mundane actions put together that makes an extraordinary thing. The game is exactly the same. It’s not one game of 80 minutes. It’s 80 games of one minute. You need to concentrate on every action.”
Reflecting on 2005
Contepomi shares experiences with Scaloni and describes their relationship as “good”. However, the 47-year-old is on his own this week as he plots what, the bookies insist, would be a seismic shock result.
So it was 20 years ago, when the Pumas were expected to lose heavily yet dominated in the set-piece, kicked all their goals and were denied victory only by the latest of Jonny Wilkinson penalty goals.
The Lions are well prepared, into week two of their preparations, whereas the South Americans flew in over the weekend without half their front-liners, obliged to remain with their French clubs as the match falls outside the official international window.
This means 11 uncapped players, including eight from the recently created Super Rugby Americas franchise tournament. Still, the situation is better than 2005 when Contepomi says “I didn’t know some of their names. I met them for the first time ever in the hotel lobby”.
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/felipe-contepomi-reveals-argentinas-football-honeymoon-inspires-los-pumas-ahead-of-british-irish-lions-showdown
