KEY POINTS:
Make no mistake about it - Argentina is Agustin Pichot's team.
"He owns it," a source close to the Argentinian set-up said. Others say it is like the Mafia and Pichot, all 1.75m and 78kg of him, is Godfather.
If that is true, then Argentina can rest easy
in the knowledge they gain just as much strength from Pichot's trusted consigliere. Watching Pichot's back is Mario Ledesma, a brute of a hooker who combines a big frame with a big brain.
The son of a Buenos Aires' veterinarian, this is Ledesma's 11th year with the national side but he has accrued just 63 caps. There's a very good reason for this and it can be summed up in two words - Federico Mendez.
Widely acknowledged at his peak as one of the top three hookers in the world, Mendez had a stranglehold on the position so Ledesma learnt the value of patience. Now, aged 34, he has such a tight grip on the No 2 jersey that few outside of Argentina would have heard of his immediate back-up, Alberto Vernet Basualdo.
Ledesma has a simple explanation as to why this Argentina team has hit World cup highs that none of their predecessors have managed to hit.
"We have been blessed with a very good generation of players," he said. A generation of players that haven't been cast on the scrap heap once they reach 30, either. Marcelo Loffreda, Argentina's understated but wily coach, clearly believes in experience.
An astonishing 17 of Argentina's 30-man squad have experienced three decades of life, with opera-singing reserve prop Omar Hasan the oldest at 36. Of that 17, nine started in their final, vital pool match against Ireland and 15 were in the 22. Experience showed too. While those in green made bad decision after wrong decision, Argentina kept grinding them down, forcing them into areas of Parc des Princes they didn't want to be in. It was such a clinical performance that, in its own way, it was almost beautiful.
"This generation has been playing together now for about eight to 10 years," Ledesma said. "We've been playing professionally. We are very united and you can see that on the field."
Unity is an important theme with this team. It is hierarchical, obviously, with Pichot at the top and six "councillors" under him - including the likes of Ledesma and the Contepomi twins - but a hierarchy without self-interest.
There used to be an awkward split in Pumas' teams, between the professionals and the home-based amateurs, but that has been largely eradicated.
Some 23 of this squad are playing professionally in Europe, including Ledesma who is at Clermont Auvergne (formerly Clermont Ferrand). In fact, it is estimated that Argentina has some 400 players playing professionally in Europe. It is so common that there is no longer feeling of the one or two pros coming back into the Argentina team thinking they know everything about rugby.
The flipside is that it is awfully hard for the Argentina Rugby Union to get releases for their best players so their international programme remains anaemic for a team of their talents - but that is a whole other story.
There is a heightened sense of expectation in Argentina. In what must be a first, one of the football world's most intense derbies, River Plate versus Boca Juniors, is being pushed forward two hours so people can find bars and clubs to watch the Pumas. What's more, it was not a decision taken by broadcasters, but a decision forced by popular demand.
"Our objective was to qualify for the quarter-finals but we are in a position now where it would be very mediocre if we think we have reached our goal," said Ledesma.
This will almost certainly be the big hooker's last World Cup, but there is another Ledesma on the fast-track to Los Pumas. His brother Pablo plays for Stade Francais as a prop. As Mario left Argentina to pursue a professional career while Pablo was in his early teens you can imagine the strange feeling it must have been when one of their first encounters on a rugby field came in the final of the French championship this year when Pablo's side won.
Asked whether family was important to this team, Ledesma, without hesitation, said: "This is family."
In a serendipitous moment, as he uttered those words one of Pichot's young daughters moved into the players' area and tugged at the legs of Felipe Contepomi as he was being interviewed by the Argentinian press. Without a moment's hesitation, Contepomi lifted the child to his hip as if she was one of his own.
For some reason this simple, human gesture, seemed to encapsulate what Ledesma was trying to say about this team.
Argentina meet Scotland tomorrow morning at Stade de France in the last quarterfinal. The winner will meet the winner of the South Africa-Fiji clash from Marseille overnight.
Argentina Vs Scotland
Argentina
Ignacio Corleto
Lucas Borges
Manuel Contepomi
Felipe Contepomi
Horacio Agulla
Juan Martin Hernandez
Agustin Pichot (captain)
Gonzalo Longo
Juan Fernandez Lobbe
Lucas Ostiglia
Patricio Albacete
Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe
Martin Scelzo
Mario Ledesma
Rodrigo Roncero
Replacements: Alberto Vernet Basualdo, Omar Hasan, Rimas Alvarez, Juan Manuel Leguizamon, Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, Federico Todeschini, Hernan Senillosa
Scotland
Rory Lamont
Sean Lamont
Simon Webster
Rob Dewey
Chris Paterson
Dan Parks
Mike Blair
Simon Taylor
Allister Hogg
Jason White (captain)
Jim Hamilton
Nathan Hines
Euan Murray
Ross Ford
Gavin Kerr
Replacements: Scott Lawson, Craig Smith, Scott MacLeod, Kelly Brown,Chris Cusiter, Andrew Henderson, Hugo Southwell
