Argentina looking to shock the hosts in opener
And the Pumas coach Marcelo Loffreda believes his French based out-half Juan Martin Hernandez is the man most capable of gunning down the French in front of their own adoring fans.
Hernandez plays with Stade Francais, but his outings in the pivotal 10 jersey have been pretty limited given the presence of French out-half David Skrela.
Loffreda, the iconic Argentinean coach, believes he has made the right decision in opting for Hernandez and moving Felipe Contepomi to 13 where he will partner his twin brother Manuel.
“I don’t think it is a problem for Felipe to move; he has played in the centre before and will relish the prospect of playing alongside his brother.
“We had to balance the team; we don’t have endless resources, and we just felt that the time was right for Juan Martin to make the team. He has got a lot more experience in the last year with Stade Francais and he is playing very well. He’s the kind of guy that can control a game, but he also does some things out of the ordinary. It will be important to keep France, of all teams, second guessing.”
Argentina has benefited from a decent amount of time together and Loffreda believes his team is capable of springing a surprise.
“We have come a long way in four years; guys are now exposed to the professional game and that helps,” he said.
The Pumas coach did, however, see fit to pick one amateur in the side. Winger/centre Horacio Agulla has not yet been signed up by a European club, but Loffreda isn’t worried.
“He is an exceptional player with huge potential. He might still be amateur, but he trains and plays like a professional. There is always room for someone of his potential in the team, and I think he iscapable of making a big impact on this tournament,” he said.
Meanwhile, influential captain Agustin Pichot will be playing in his fourth tournament. Neither he nor his team-mates have considered anything other than victory over the French, and they are aiming to break a run of unsuccessful starts by Argentina in the World Cup.
Pichot will be taking the field in the opening match of the tournament for a third time.
On both previous occasions he has been on the losing side — against Wales in 1999 and Australia in 2003.
“We have five days so we’d better arrive in the best way possible to change the result in our favour,” the 33-year-old said.
But if he believes it to be a daunting task, Pichot is also thrilled to be playing host nation France in the opening match.
“I have a number of friends in the French team and I know how excited they are to play in front of their home crowd,” he said.
“The most important thing is to enjoy it. I love playing rugby, I love what I do and it will be a good event for everyone and rugby deserves it.”
Pichot is well aware of the challenge facing Argentina as they hope to advance to the quarter-finals, with Triple Crown winners Ireland, ranked fifth, and France, ranked third in the world, the major threats in their group.
“We have a very tough pool, we have two very tough countries we are playing against (France and Ireland), and the other two countries (Namibia and Georgia) we don’t know about. We will have to be very intense in how we play all these games,” Pichot said.
But Pichot is also mindful of the fact that his team has crept up the rankings over the last 18 months.
“We’re now getting more recognition on the IRB charts, although I suppose that can be counter-productive as well in that it forewarns other countries that we’re not necessarily the soft touch some might think we are.
“Still, it’s all about getting up there to compete favourably with the other big teams on an ever bigger stage. The stage in Paris doesn’t get much better; we just hope to prove we can fill it,” he said.
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