Viva Los Pumas!

Time: 8pm
Date: 7 September 2007
Venue: Stade de France, St Denis, Paris, France
Event: Opening match of the Rugby World Cup 2007
Protagonists: Les Bleus (France) v Los Pumas (Argentina)
Attendance: 80,000 including 1 brass band & 1 cockrel

I never doubted that Argentina had the potential to spoil the party. I'm just particularly glad that Marcelo Loffreda, the Argentina coach, is going to be on our side soon! His game plan worked perfectly against a French side full of first night nerves. It's very easy to point the finger at the weaknesses in team selection after the event, its a different matter to analyse each individual's strengths and weaknesses and to take full advantage of that knowledge and that's exactly what the Pumas did.

Having seen them perform last night, I wonder if we might be able to add to our single Argentine player, Marcos Ayerza, with a couple more over the next few seasons. He's one of the best props in the Premiership and he didn't even make the bench for last night's game!

And all this from a side who don't have a place in the main international competitions, relying on summer tours and one-off games. I just hope they've got the stamina to get through to the next round, although from a selfish point of view it would be better for the Tigers if they got knocked out at the pool stage so we could have our new coach!