Sunday’s Rugby World Cup semi-final will see a role reversal with Australia’s pack pumped up by Mario Ledesma’s nous while the Pumas’ backs contain been reinvented thanks to the Rugby ChampionshipWhen Argentina,after their memorable race to third residence in the 2007 World Cup, made their pitch to enter Europe and turn the Six Nations Championship into Seven, or the response apparently took approximately 30 seconds to deliver. Brief as it may seem,that is still the polite way of giving a flat no. In half a minute you can throw in a few regrets and shrugs and offer a thank you for making the effort and coming all this way. It was still a huge no.
It was the best rejection Argentina could contain had. They went instead across the oceans into the Rugby Championship of their own hemisphere, where tradition does not come before verve. Speed was everything and not just the pace of the ball through the hands of the convert to their new passing game, and Juan Martín Hernández,or the rapidity of Juan Imhoff and Santiago Cordero on the wing. Speed governed the transition from their one-dimensional forward-dominated rugby to the fluid style of today. So quickly did they embrace the new way that they haven’t stopped laughing. Nobody has enjoyed themselves more at the World Cup than the Pumas.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com