KEY POINTS:
Manawatu manager John Knowles has an anecdote he believes sums up his Argentinian fullback perfectly.
With just seconds to go before kickoff in this year's Air New Zealand Cup, Knowles went down to the bench as Waikato and the green-and-whites prepared to do battle. Francisco Bosch waved to him urgently.
"Can you get a message quickly up to Rens [Manawatu coach Dave Rennie]," Bosch told Knowles.
Probably expecting Bosch was about to tell him he'd picked up a last-minute calf strain or something similar and would be unable to take his place in the reserves, Knowles was expecting the worse.
"Yeah, what is it?" he asked.
"Tell him I'm warmed up and ready to go on now," came Bosch's excited reply.
"That basically sums him up for me," Knowles said. "He hates being out of the action and can't sit still."
When he did get on, he made an impact, scoring a sensational try, courtesy of a well-timed header, the type more commonly seen in his home town of Buenos Aires with a round ball, as Manawatu impressed in their opener.
It's that sort of spark that has given Bosch cult hero status in Palmerston North, whose residents have not been treated to anything quite so exotic since The Damned appeared at the Rheineck Rock Festival in the late-80s. He is often stopped in the street but a bashful Bosch will only say "the people here are very nice to me".
There is almost exactly 10,000km between Palmy and Buenos Aires, and even more to the Cayman Islands, but that is where the link was formed. At a low-key sevens tournament in the Caymans, Bosch ran into Manawatu first-five Graham Smith. It might have been the beer talking but a plan was forged to get the quicksilver fullback to New Zealand.
"He appealed for me to come to New Zealand," Bosch said in English that is far better than his team-mates' Spanish.
So Bosch left a law degree unfinished - he still has two years of study to complete - and the wide boulevards of Buenos Aires for Broadway, Palmy's main street. Bosch has dreams to pursue in rugby and is convinced playing in the Air New Zealand Cup - even on a consistently losing team - will help him.
"I learned a lot of things. It has helped me a lot in my game. It has been very good for me.
"If I had to dream, then of course I dream of playing for my country," says the 24 year old.
"Maybe something even tougher than that. To play Super 14 would be a dream but I don't know if I can and I don't know if I'm good enough."
He might be a novice in terms of New Zealand rugby but Bosch is every bit as steeped in the sport as the average Kiwi kid.
"I came from a family that played rugby. It's traditional, like a family legacy. You play rugby because your father takes you to his club.
"I started to play when I was four. Because we live in a big city, we'd spend the weekend there, playing rugby with your friends, it's more social [and strictly amateur]. You play rugby to have fun and friends."
The rugby cultural divide between the two countries is understandably vast.
"It is very different, starting with the language obviously. Maybe I thought it would be more different. We do different things but it is OK."
Football is still a big part of his life, even if his own choice is rugby. Nobody in Argentina, whose national team have been two-time world champions, escapes its all-pervading influence.
Bosch says it's still the best sport in the world and is a staunch River Plate supporter, conceding through gritted teeth that local rivals and hated enemy Boca Juniors (Maradona's old club) are "at the moment, to be honest, much better".
Manawatu know they're not going to be chasing a title this year but their season opener gave them cause for greater optimism.
That optimism smacked into its counterpart pessimism after Thursday night's loss in Blenheim when the visitors were humbled by the more pragmatic approach of Tasman.
Bosch, it has to be said, was at the bottom end of his mercury scale.
"Nothing went as we expected," said Bosch. "We didn't have a good game. Just, oh, I don't know, we must work a lot."
Bosch believes a win could be the snowflake that turns into an avalanche.
"It's tough for us, not winning. It's all about our mind, OK."
