Pumas pack primed for Poms

While every team at the World Cup will feel the weight of expectation, England will face another kind of pressure when they lock horns with the Argentine scrum.

The pair play their opening Pool B encounter on Saturday, 10 September in Dunedin and the Pumas have long been known as strong scrummagers.

Their reputation grew thanks to a style known as the ‘bajadita’.

Developed in the 1960s by San Isidro club coach Francisco Ocampo and further refined by his protege, Carlos ‘Veco’ Villegas, the bajadita became synonymous with Argentine rugby.

England manager Martin Johnson knows first-hand what it is like to face an Argentine pack from his playing days.

“They are a little bit like the French scrum – they often don’t hit you that hard, they build up the weight,” he said.

“There’s a lot of pressure through the hooker, whereas if you go back 25 years in British rugby, hookers were smaller and more agile.

“I played in Argentina in 1989, when I was 19 years old. We had a very long day in the scrum that day.”

Hooker Lee Mears plays his club rugby for Bath, who featured Pumas great Federico Mendez in their ranks in the late 1990s.

“Having played with an Argentine legend, ‘Fred’ Mendez, you know he always spoke about the style of Argentinian scrummaging,” he said.

“The way they scrum, they’re very together and unique so it’s going to be a tough day at the office [on Saturday].”

While the bajadita technique is more the stuff of rugby legend these days, Argentina will doubtless ask plenty of questions of the English scrum.

“The bajadita isn’t used much nowadays,” Pumas prop Juan Figallo said.

“It used to be a form of scrummaging in Argentina, which worked well and became world-famous.

“People often ask me about it but it’s something very exclusive to a scrum.”

The technique relies on all eight forwards engaging with a co-ordinated push while keeping as low to the ground as possible; modern scrummaging rules have effectively depowered the method.

For Rodrigo Roncero, who plays for Paris club Stade Francais, the bajadita is now a thing of the past.

“Now it’s impossible to put into practice,” he said.

“There are many reasons why, on an international scale, but a few years ago it was greatly useful to a good few Argentinian teams.”

Johnson echoed Roncero’s sentiments.

“The way the scrum is played these days has changed,” he said.

“They’ll have a very hard scrum on Saturday but it’s more about angles now. And we’ve got a pretty good pack.”

RNS