Contepomi: Irish among best in Europe
Contepomi, who helped Leinster win the Heineken Cup in 2009 before switching to French club Toulon, was a subdued figure at fly-half for Argentina, despite contributing all his team’s points with the boot. And while admitting his side played badly he praised the Irish effort.
“Ireland played a really good first half and we didn’t score in the moments we had too,” Contepomi said “There were crucial moments that maybe could have made us start the game well but we didn’t score.
“Then we came back into the game and again didn’t score. So it was lost there.
“Ireland played a really good first half and they broke us a few times and they scored a good try and it’s hard when we chase a team when you’re nearly 20 points behind.”
“Ireland took every single chance, like in the last five minutes of the game, which can sum up how the game was. Ireland were struggling and then they turned it over, put the game in our field and scored a wonderful try.”
Having beaten Italy and the French Barbarians but lost to France on their European tour, Contepomi rated Ireland against their Six Nations rivals.
“For me, probably France and Ireland are the two best teams in Europe at the moment. We had different objectives in every game and it’s hard to compare when against Italy we didn’t play well but we won, against France we played better but we lost and today we played badly and we lost badly.
“But Ireland are a very good team, they know each other very well and now they’re bringing new blood in. The guys that played today and in this series, I think they played well.
“It’s good for Ireland, especially for the coming Six Nations and the World Cup. They’re finding a solid group, young guys that show they can play well at international level and I think Irish rugby is going to be good for the next few years.”
Of those young Irish guys, Contepomi was particularly impressed by his rival number 10 and former Leinster team-mate Jonathan Sexton, whom he backed for a starring role at fly-half for Ireland.
“Jonny is getting better and better every game,” the Argentine said. “You can see he’s getting more confident and in the Irish team he’s getting better and better and it’s really nice to see him progressing like that, especially with a very important Six Nations coming up and then the World Cup.
“I’m sure he’ll arrive at both and give a good performance for Irish rugby.”
As for Argentina’s own prospects at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand next year, Contepomi was far less enthusiastic when asked how close his team was to repeating its feat at the last World Cup when they reached the 2007 semi-finals.
“Miles away,” he said. “We are realistic, the 2007 World Cup was a team that maybe it took us to fail at the 2003 World Cup to recognise where we can become better.
“We don’t want the next World Cup to be a failure to recover for the 2014 one but definitely we have a lot of work to do and I think we’ve been very (consistent) in this autumn series but we’ve only two more games until the next World Cup.
“So hopefully the two months preparation before the World Cup will give us the opportunity to gel a bit more and try and do the good things more regularly.”
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