Pumas captain Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe plans to make progress

Published on Wednesday 25 November 2009 22:44

ARGENTINA captain Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe is a proud man – a powerful, aggressive but skilful forward, who epitomises many of the traits of Argentine rugby.

So, though he remains a steadfastly ambitious character, one who has played at the top of the English game with Sale and now performs alongside Scotland full-back Rory Lamont and England's Jonny Wilkinson with the French league leaders Toulon, he has grown to accept the trials of Argentina in striving to be the best they can be in world rugby. The high point so far was the semi-final appearance in the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, where they edged past Frank Hadden's Scotland side in the last eight, and a world ranking of third.

Since then, the team has won just three games in 11, all at home, and slipped to eighth in the world. Should they lose to Scotland on Saturday, for the second successive time, they are likely to swap places with the Scots, currently in ninth. Fernandez Lobbe shrugs. It is the lot of Argentine rugby, he says, and the past two years merely highlight how great an achievement that third-place finish in France was.

"What is important for us now is what happens inside this group," he said. "They need to realise that what that group achieved in the 2007 World Cup was really big, amazing, but it was the result of a lot of hard work during a lot of years.

Argentina team selected to face Scotland

"We are very confident together, believe in this group and the path we have taken, and we have two more years to really prepare ourselves, and we know that everything that matters is the way you prepare yourselves to get into the World Cup."

Like his elder brother Ignacio, who retired after the two Tests with Scotland in the summer of 2008, but still plays for Northampton, Juan Martin is an engaging and entertaining character. Scottish media recall him conducting after-match interviews wearing a tiger head borrowed from a supporter after knocking the Scots out of the World Cup.

But he has a serious side and right now that surrounds helping to bring on a new generation of Pumas. He is optimistic, but insists that expectations have had to be tempered; the team wants to win every time it takes the field, but now achieving improved performances from game to game is the priority.

"We need to be careful with that (expectation of victory on Saturday]. It is very important to us to finish on a high note, in what it means to performance. I believe we made a good step forward against England, and went a bit backwards against Wales, so this is the only game we have left and we have to finish going forward and being positive. And I do believe that when you're focused and have a good performance most of the time it takes you to a good result.

"It could be very important for our confidence to have a good result in Edinburgh, because it's never easy to play here, but mainly for us it's very important to have a good performance so that we can believe in what we're doing and that the path we are taking is the right one.

"We now have a new system in Argentina, a plan, with the best young players coming through being put into a professional environment where they are training five days a week, have a good diet, rest, everything. It's completely new. It's like a professional academy system and some of our young guys who will be playing against Scotland have come from that, and I can see that they are more ready for professional rugby than I was when I first came to Scotland."

The No8-cum-flanker made his Test debut against Scotland at Murrayfield in 2005, and is one of only four players who started against Scotland in the 2007 Rugby World Cup who will start again this weekend.

However, they still have good players, notably outside backs Gonzalo Tiesi, Lucas Borges, Federico Arambaru and Horacio Agulla.

Arambaru is one of the six changes from the team that lost to Wales, alongside Alfredo Lalanne, Alejandro Campos, Manuel Carizza, Marcos Ayerza and Alberto Vernet Basualdo.