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 9/9/07
It will be remembered as the match that
stunned a nation. Not necessarily because of
the result. Argentina had beaten France in
four of their last five encounters, and
England had also suffered at Twickenham last
autumn. We expected Argentina to make a
decent fist of it but few expected the
nature of their triumph.
It is important to understand the context to
appreciate the significance. This was the
opening game of the 2007 World Cup, a match
that a team, a president and a country had
been building up to for months. The opening
ceremony with its stark images of sinewy men
clad in black rhythmically beating oil drums
with blocks of wood echoed the insistent,
repetitive clamour of a public demanding its
rugby team repeat the triumph of its
footballers.
Before the combatants entered the arena the
emotional charge was cranked up still
further with flashbacks on the big stadium
screen of pivotal moments from past World
Cups. There was a parade of the sport's
legends in which New Zealand were
represented by Jonah Lomu, England by Steve
Thompson and France by the
flanker-turned-sculptor Jean-Pierre Rives.
Rives and Keith Wood both carried little
children with them as they scampered across
the pitch.
At every turn a statement was being made
about rugby's rhythms, its power, its values
and into this maelstrom walked Argentina and
France. Both teams were made to wait as
introductory words were spoken by French
rugby president Bernard Lapasset and Syd
Millar, chairman of the International Rugby
Board. The French were impassive, apparently
certain of their ability to deliver. The
Argentinians, meanwhile, hopped and hugged
each other in a fever of adrenalin and
uncertainty. This is why the game will be
remembered. Opening matches in World Cups
strip teams of their excuses. Everyone has
had time to prepare properly, there are no
out-of-season clashes which see nations
travelling depleted and out of sorts. And on
Friday night there was the additional
convulsing realisation that the loser faced
a potential early exit from the competition.
If France do not beat Ireland in Paris on
September 21, the hosts could be out.
Don't for a moment think that Argentina were
lucky, that they caught France on a bad
night and if the match were replayed the
result would be different. Yes, France made
a bunch of mistakes. They were unable to get
good field position, they turned over ball,
they lost composure and they missed two
simple penalties in front of the posts at
crucial stages in the match. But none of
that should detract from how good Argentina
were.
This was a side that found a new dimension.
They were actually stuffed up front, their
traditional power base. The French forwards
drove them back in the scrums and had them
retreating off mauls from line-outs. Yet how
did Argentina respond? In the first half
especially they taught France a lesson in
back play. Felipe Contepomi, playing out of
his usual position to accommodate Juan
Martin Hernandez at outside half, provided
the touches that France never found, even in
the final quarter when coach Bernard Laporte
emptied his bench.
Argentina put pace on the ball. Their try,
although coming off an intercept, was
fashioned by the deft hands of Manuel
Contepomi and the searing speed of Ignacio
Corleto, who burst through the hole. For the
first 50 minutes of the match they were a
revelation. And in the last half hour, when
the enormity of what they were about to
achieve seemed to shut down their
expansionist intentions, they simply put up
a defensive wall that France could not
breach and booted the leather off the ball.
At the end, as the Argentinian bench ran on
to engulf their mates in a ringed orgy of
congratulation, there were echoes of another
seminal rugby moment. It took me back to
Ellis Park, South Africa, in 1995, and
Francois Pienaar's circle of prayer after
the Boks had clinched the World Cup. That
was the end of the competition, this only
the beginning. But already Argentina have
contributed an enduring memory. The sight of
beaming sweat-stained Argentinian forwards
tugging at the badges on their shirts as
they headed down the tunnel will take some
time to fade.
PAUL ACKFORD -
Sunday Telegraph | Sunday, 9 September 2007
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