Hernandez: Pumasclawing back the gap

The story goes that Juan Martin Hernandez could have been a professional soccer player had he twisted his neck and glanced down a different road.

After all, his uncle Patricio was a squad midfielder at the 1982 World Cup and his attempts at sexy rugby across the last decade lend lead weight to the notion of being gifted. Indeed, at a press conference on Tuesday, Marcos Ayerza said of his teammate, “He could play any sport, he could play ping pong in the hotel and be brilliant.”

But as it turns out, it’s just that. A story. Others may look up vertically to the 30-year-old, but he just sits and shrugs his shoulders when the suggestion of a different and more glamorous career path is put to him. “No, no, I just played a little soccer when I was younger. My uncle was a coach after he finished playing and I did some training with him. But that was it. It was always rugby.” That’s the end of it as anything brash or flash is saved for the field. Here it’s all about understatement and there’s no burning down the house to get the flies out of the kitchen.

Besides, he’d rather talk about the collective and given what’s happening in Argentinian rugby at the moment, that’s understandable. For years he was a bright star against a pitch-black background but now the entire system is beginning to twinkle after year one in the new southern-hemisphere Rugby Championship.

“When I was younger I was watching Tri-Nations and was thinking we could never play this rugby,” he smiles with a hint of pride.

“But now we are and it’s a different style we are playing. As soon as we were involved in the Rugby Championship, the coaches knew an evolution had to happen in our rugby with a lot of technical work, especially with Graham Henry who helped us change our style. Now we are playing better. We are making some mistakes because we are discovering this style, this high-level rugby, but we are learning.”

That they won none of their six games against the best three teams in the world over the summer appears little more than a footnote at the end of this crucial chapter. Whereas the slugger will always be able to win here and there, only a boxer can triumph in the title fight. That mentality may have seen them take one step back but after the rarity of a summer spent together as a team, they are now hoping to start into those two steps forward.

“We are doing a good job developing new players,” Hernandez continues. “So the Rugby Championship is very useful for us, players can have competition year after year. All the games were very intense and that can only be good for a country. Before that I was out for three years almost, with two big surgeries, but to come back to this… Now I’m enjoying every second, every game, every training session. It was lonely, there was a lot of time in hospital but it happens. I was very sad of course and it was a hard time, watching the team on TV especially during the World Cup. But that’s the past.”

As for the present, it’s everything you expect from transition. Some of the players still look thankful for the media attention as the amateur ethos of rugby back home still resides. The results have been up and down too, with a win against Wales followed up by defeat to France. But after a memorable year for Hernandez and his country, now is the chance to leave a hugely positive season behind on a hugely positive note.

“I don’t think the northern hemisphere style is so different to what we played this year, in rugby all the games now are very intense. Worldwide rugby is getting closer, there’s not much difference, only for New Zealand who are unbeatable, but the rest of the teams are very close. And I don’t think they [Ireland] are short of confidence. They like to play, run the ball, so I always like to play against them. They have a very good rugby spirit, passing the ball and keeping it moving. But us, we want to show on Saturday what we learned this year and show what we are doing now.”