Wood has key role against Pumas

Ireland captain and hooker Keith Wood is shutting out talk of defeat in the past and retirement in the future to focus on the fierce personal battle he faces in the World Cup pool match against Argentina in Adelaide on Sunday.

Wood was 27 when he and Ireland were dumped out of the 1999 World Cup by the Pumas in Lens and now, at 31, he is on the brink of bowing out of the game but knows his country will be relying heavily upon him in a clash with one of the most powerful packs in rugby.

“They have a fantastic scrum but it is just something we obviously have to deal with and deal with as best as we possibly can,” said Wood after being named in the team for Sunday’s encounter.

“An awful lot of the contact in the Argentinian scrums goes through the hooker. It is a different style.

"Traditional scrummaging is more through one prop or the other depending on the situation. It is just a constant heavy weight,” he said of his own specific role.

“I know how good they are, I have seen it and I have had it at first hand.”

Wood confirmed that the hype around Argentina’s scrum was very much deserved even though many nations now matched the Pumas’ famous aggression in the tight exchanges.

“Traditionally they would have been maybe out on their own, but an awful lot of teams now are in that level of aggressive contact all over the field.

“Argentina are very physical, France are, South Africa are, England are.”

Ever since the draw was made for this group, rugby talk in Ireland has clustered around hopes of vengeance for that dark day in Lens, when Diego Albanese’s try eight minutes from full-time and then Gonzalo Quesada’s late penalty set up a dramatic win for the Pumas.

“I don’t think you can hark back to something that was four years ago and have it that the key to beating Argentina is to use it as a revenge,” said Wood of a day which saw Irish players in tears as they left the pitch.

“I would like to think that we have moved on an awful lot since then,” he said.

“I think you have to try and get your head around the whole concept of what happened back then.

“We had beaten them a month before the World Cup, and we then lost during the World Cup by playing very poorly.

“I have said it before that some people just totally disregarded Argentina as a force in rugby and Argentina have proven since then that they definitely are.”

The circumstances are eerily familiar in many respects, with personnel on both sides that day returning for this new battle and Ireland recording a win when the countries last met, in November.

Wood, prop Reggie Corrigan, centres Brian O’Driscoll and Kevin Maggs, and fly-half David Humphreys all have first-hand memories of the defeat. Most of the Pumas pack is still in place, as are both Quesada and Albanese.

But Wood is an older, more experienced player now – 55 Ireland caps, two Lions tours and a shoulder reconstruction have provided the combination of glory and frustration that develops both man and player. And he is eyeing retirement after the World Cup.

“I would say 99%, that is the end of me as a rugby player (after the tournament). You always keep a little back just in case,” he admitted.

“I won’t make the decision until the World Cup is over, and I have engineered the situation to be in a place where the call comes down to me. I don’t have to have a contractual or a moral commitment to a club or a province.

“It will basically come down to the fact of whether I will be fit enough physically.”