Contepomi dishes out prescription for Pumas to maintain discipline

AS a fully qualified medical doctor, the Argentine skipper Felipe Contepomi knows how to diagnose a sick patient and there is no doubt that the Pumas are ailing for something even if, you could argue, last Saturday's defeat was as much suicide as murder.

If the police were looking into it they would certainly want to question the Argentine forwards in connection with the case, such was their indiscipline at the breakdown.

If Argentina were ailing last weekend it was because they were sick of the sound of Dave Pearson's whistle which interrupted the match at all too regular intervals as the Pumas' captain conceded last week.

"You cannot give away penalties at international level with a kicker like Dan Parks, you can't win the game," said Contepomi. "Obviously we watched the game many times this week and there are a lot of rule interpretations where we were very naive.

"All the penalties we gave away were definitely penalties, we need to understand that the rules have changed and get used to them and become more disciplined because once you make two or three penalties in a row then the referee will only watch one side. That's just the way rugby is, it's not the referee's fault, it's our fault. For Argentina, the rule that the tackler has to release the player is tough because we are used to competing on the ground, but that's what we've been working on this week and also we've been watching how the Southern Hemisphere teams play the rule because they have been playing with it for the last four months."

It emerged last week that Marcelo Loffreda, who led the Argentina squad at France '07 as well as chalking up their first ever win at Twickenham against Andy Robinson's England team, was brought back into the fold as director of rugby. If Santiago Phelan was not feeling the heat before this appointment he almost certainly is now, although in truth few if any in Argentina blame the coach for their current woes.

After the euphoria of the World Cup, Argentina are simply struggling to live up to that third-place billing. Several of the "golden generation" of players have retired including Augustin Pichot and Ignacio Corletto and it is a only matter of time, maybe months, before several of the Pumas' ageing pack follow suit. Meanwhile the skipper is attempting to fast-forward the sort of bedding-in process that can't be hurried, with players like Leicester's young wing Luca Gonzalez earning his first start today.

"Every week we start to play and know each other much more," said Contepomi. "Personally I haven't played with many of the guys that I played with last weekend ever in my life. So it's about starting to get to know those players and they start to know me. The more we can play and stay together the better for us."

It's the old story. The Argentinian playmaker explained that his side had been together for ten days ahead of the first Test while he claimed the Scots had 12 weeks' preparation and, if he's exaggerating, the point remains a valid one.

To counter the problem, the Pumas even organised one brief training session in Europe last March but as Contepomi argues with undisputable logic, "two days is two days". If the Pumas can temper their enthusiasm for throwing bodies into the breakdown at random they can be dangerous with the ball in hand, as they proved in the opening 30 minutes last Saturday. It didn't go unnoticed, and Contepomi argues that the tweaks to the laws of the game now encourage a team to attack.

"If you want to make a slow game you can't take advantage of the rules nowadays because the rules suggest that you can keep the ball for phases and phases. We are trying to attack a bit more and not kick so much and if we kick, we kick with a real purpose. It's about being intelligent and, when we learn to play them, the rules will suit us. We let Scotland grow in confidence (last weekend) and once Scotland have the ball they play very good rugby. We were like spectators rather than actors. It's hard, but that's how it went.

"I am expecting our team to improve on last week, especially in terms of penalties. If we can produce some good rugby and score some tries then that's what we are looking for. But I know that Scotland will grow in confidence and they will take the game that they played as a bonus for them and they will come here to Mar del Plata to win and take two victories back home."

The doctor can diagnose the patient's problems but whether Contepomi can nurse these Pumas back to full health in just one week is another matter.