Pichot refuses to dwell on the past as history puts Lens in focus

AGUSTIN PICHOT squirms slightly at the question. It’s only Monday evening in the Crown Plaza Hotel in Coogee Beach, Sydney, but perhaps he is already realising that, with six days to go before Argentina’s clash with Ireland, it’s a topic he is going to have to deal with far too many times for his liking.

The question of course concerns Lens four years ago. A night of infamy for Ireland but one of deliverance for the Pumas after three World Cups where they consistently failed to deliver on their undoubted promise.

The knock-on effect of that night for Pichot personally and Argentinian rugby in general was nothing short of life changing. Pichot, surprisingly, is simply not interested in any of that now.

"If you live off memories you're dead," he explains.

"Today Ireland will be fuelling themselves with those memories and if we slip into that (mindset) we will lose the game. So, what we are doing is challenging ourselves to get the same result but thinking that we have to do a lot of things properly to do that."

Pichot's reluctance to take a nostalgic look back is understandable on closer inspection. 1999 was by no means a year of unqualified happiness for the 29-year-old.

His father Enrique died and his first English club, Richmond, folded.

Further upheaval followed with the collapse of the Argentinian economy in 2001 and again, albeit on a less tragic scale, this summer when his club Bristol hit choppy financial waters forcing his sale to Stade Francais.

Through it all, Pichot's personal star has never waned at home or abroad, on or off the field.

Lens propelled his celebrity back home beyond the rugby sphere something the legendary Hugo Porta never even achieved to such an extent that he was named Argentine 'Sportsman of the Year' last year, while former Wallaby coach Bob Dwyer routinely pencils him into his World XV team.

While he would be happier if all mention of Lens was prohibited until at least Monday morning, Pichot does admit that the dramatic 28-24 play-off win over Warren Gatland's side on that occasion has raised the stakes for Los Pumas as they re-engage with the Irish in Adelaide.

"Yes it does. It always does having a good team and having a good memory like that," he says.

"It makes everything that happens now massive.

"But again, I come back to what I said, the past is never good if you take it the wrong way.

"What good will that win in Lens be to us next weekend if we are beaten by Ireland? None at all.

"It will be very tough. November will have nothing to do with it, the rain, the pissing rain in Dublin no, this is different.

"It has been in the mind of the Irish for the last four years and that will be a very strong motivation for them."

The past, it seems, can't be completely ignored after all.