Rugby World Cup: Argentina's soul unites its codes

Legends both, Diego Maradona, left, and Agustin Pichot. Photo / Facebook

Agustin Pichot hobbled into a Buenos Aires nightclub one evening in 1996. He was 19 and on crutches, recovering from a knee operation.

To his surprise, he was ushered into the VIP area. It was deserted except for Diego Maradona and a couple of pals. A friendship was born, one that was rekindled in expressive fashion three weeks ago at the Leicester City Stadium when the Argentine footballer celebrated in his usual restrained fashion as the Pumas defeated Tonga.

Maradona is still weighing up plans to fly to Twickenham from Dubai to watch Argentina go for glory tomorrow in the semifinal against Australia. Pichot awaits the call.

"I was just starting my international career when I met him," recalls Pichot. "I was really low after my cruciate injury. Maradona had somehow heard about it. He told me not to worry, explaining how he had shattered his ankle years earlier, feared his time was done too, but that everything would come good.

"He has become a friend. He is just a human being like us all. As he put on Instagram from the dressing-room: 'Friends forever'.

"He did wonder if he would be allowed to attend as he says that Fifa don't let him into some stadiums. It is not just a celebrity thing. The Argentina cause means a lot to all of us. It brings us together."

Passion plays big for the Pumas. The tears flow at the anthems. The scenes of exultation at the final whistle in the Millennium Stadium last weekend when Ireland had been trumped were an expression of their esprit de corps.

"You cannot manufacture that emotion, that sense of togetherness," said Pichot. "We do have a deep love of our country. It is in our soul. It comes from our immigrant roots, Spanish exiles, poor people at the turn of the last century, far from home. That is where the tango is rooted, that great dance of suffering yet also of self-expression.

"It is the cry of the poor, their sense of pride coming out, macho, too. Sometimes we may not be as talented as an Englishman or an American in tennis or basketball or whatever, but we do have that special bit that comes from within."

Pichot epitomised that as a player, small but fierce, standing only 1.75m but that tells you nothing of the size of his heart.

He led the Pumas to a World Cup semifinal in 2007 when Argentina twice beat the hosts, France: on the opening night and again in the third-fourth playoff.

"It was not very good rugby but it was effective," said Pichot.

This time it is different. The Pumas of that era thrived in spite of the system. This time, it is the system that has delivered them to the gates of a World Cup final. Pichot has been a prime driving force.

As a player, he was the shop steward forever at loggerheads with the conservative Argentina union. Now it is Pichot who wears a blazer as a World Rugby board member. Just after the 2007 Rugby World Cup, he took up the cudgels at an International Rugby Board gathering in Woking. Pichot believed that Argentina's best bet was to push for entry into the Six Nations.

"That seemed logical to me at the time," said Pichot, who made an approach to the European delegates at that meeting. "It was dismissed within 30 seconds."

Pichot then set about establishing a link with the rest of the southern hemisphere. Argentina were admitted to the Rugby Championship in 2012 and will have their first Super Rugby franchise next season.

Argentina are in good order.

Presidential elections mean that all bars in Argentina will be closed tomorrow, although a suitable number of Champagne corks will pop in the Pumas' base if they are to win through to their first final.

"Anything is possible," said Pichot. "This generation has been brilliant. They are ready."