“I think that today at no time were we the team we want to be”

Felipe Contepomicoach The Pumasdid not mince words when evaluating the tough defeat against South Africa in the match that this Saturday defined the champion of the 2024 edition of the Rugby Championship. “I think that today at no time were we the team we want to be”lamented the head coach, still on the playing field, after the 48-7 in Nelspruit that allowed the almighty Springbokstwo-time world champions, win again the tournament that brings together the best four teams in the Southern Hemisphere.

“Obviously they were superior from minute one to minute 80. It always hurts to lose, but the most difficult thing is the way we lost. I think that today at no time were we the team we want to be and, nothing, we will have to continue working, evaluating, learning, being tough with self-criticism and seeing where we lacked,” he lamented.

And he expanded: “We will have time to analyze our idea a little more deeply. We want to take steps forward, but undoubtedly this was not the case and that is where we have to be very hard on ourselves to be able to continue growing. Afterwards, yes , there are things that were done very well and we have to reinforce them… But, nothing, we have to keep learning.”

On the other hand, Contepomi explained the tactical decision to remove winger Rodrigo Isgró 37 minutes into the first half to put the experienced Juan Cruz Mallía on the court, who rounded off a great tournament. It was, surprisingly, a tactical decision.

“It’s my mistake, totally my mistake, because I think that I did not prepare Rodri correctly. Rodri is an excellent player and I think he is going to be an excellent 15-year-old player, but he comes from years of playing sevens, which metabolically is another rugby and he couldn’t go back, he couldn’t cover his point, he wasn’t there, he couldn’t kick again… In training I saw that it was difficult for him a little, but he couldn’t handle the intensity of the game. But it was my mistake, one hundred percent my mistake,” argued Contepomi.

The coach, very self-critical of Los Pumas despite the fact that his team starred in the best Rugby Championship in its history, praised South Africa’s approachwho came out determined to drown his team and achieved it from the beginning of the match.

“They came to propose the game to play straight. South Africa is going to dent you and we knew it was going to be like this… What happens is that as soon as we started we gave them a line in 30 meters and then you start taking a penalty and they put it in the five yards. They are unforced errors that cannot be committed and from there it becomes very difficult,” he analyzed.

In that sense, he closed: “Later, strategically, I think that to have a chance to compete we had to get the ball from them and they had it, I think, 90% of the game. So you are forced to defend all the time.”