Puma Petti: I’ll always cherish beating Ireland
OCTOBER 18, 2015 is a date that will forever send chills down the spine of Ireland rugby fans. Despite the hype surrounding Joe Schmidt’s well-drilled Ireland team, all hopes of reaching a first World Cup semi-final were shattered by an Argentinian ambush in Cardiff, the energetic Pumas racing into an early lead that a shell- shocked Ireland simply couldn’t claw back.
Of course, one man’s pain is another man’s pleasure, and Guido Petti can’t help but smile when that roller coaster game is mentioned at Argentina’s Dublin base ahead of Saturday’s rematch at Aviva Stadium.
‘I don’t know if it was the best,’ the 23-year- old ponders as his mind flicks through other momentous days in his young career, ‘but it was very important in a World Cup, so of course maybe it’s the one that I most remember.’
Petti was just 20 when he lined out against Ireland in that World Cup quarter- f i nal, where the Pumas powered into a 17-0 lead. Injured key figures Paul O’Connell, Johnny Sexton, Peter O’Mahony, Jared Payne and the suspended Sean O’Brien could only watch on as their team-mates failed to find a way back, fighting bravely before succumbing to a flurry of late scores as Argentina ran out deserved 43-20 winners.
‘It was an amazing experience,’ the lock continues.
‘I learned a lot. I had team members like [Juan Martin] Fernandez-Lobbe, and he and Agustin Creevy and some more were the ones who l ed the team. So I learned a lot from them. Maybe now it is a very young team and we are more the same age. Maybe it’s those players (who have since retired) who were very good in that moment.
‘I remember Ireland lost their captain, so it was tough for them.’
This time around, Argentina are in a strange place as they arrive in Dublin.
Saturday’s clash will bring the curtain down on a gruelling campaign that began with pre-season training on January 4, the majority of the squad spending most of the year together, either with the Pumas or the Jaguares — Argentina’s Buenos Aires-based Super Rugby team.
There has been little reward over the course of those 11 months. Most of the squad have boarded 50 flights to fulfil their testing fixture list, with Argentina failing to win a single game in this year’s Rugby Championship, before losing to an out-of-sorts England at the beginning of their November tour and beating Italy last week.
Fatigue may be a factor this weekend.
‘I think we’re tired, but we know that it’s the last match and we want to end this year the best we can. The last one against Italy was very good for us, to lift our spirits, and now we hope this game feels good and we continue playing the way we want to.
‘A lot of trips, a lot of time away from our families and friends, the people we like. It’s tough. But if you want the good things of playing international rugby you have to take the bad things as well.’
It’s a view shared by Argentina’s assistant coach Pablo Bouza.
‘It’s a learning curve for us,’ he explains. ‘It’s different for our team, we’re the only team in the world that play about 30 matches together since January.’
There were signs of progress in the win against Italy, the Pumas finishing strongly to see off Conor O’Shea’s Azzurri 31-15.
This weekend offers an opportunity to go out on a high, and while some members of the Irish camp will, no doubt, eye up revenge for 2015, Bouza insists the Pumas won’t be reading too much into the last time the two sides met.
‘It was a different team and a different moment and Ireland had so many injuries the week before [in 2015], very important players.
‘Argentina was in good shape for the World Cup. We cannot look back to that match.’
Hopefully, for Schmidt and Co, the memories won’t be as painful this time around.