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Los Pumas need to be mentally stronger to finish when it is there for the taking

By Frankie Deges
(Photo by Daniel Jayo/Getty Images)

The image speaks a thousand words. The fixed camera, agreed prior to kick-off that will have no sound, captures all that happens in the small changing room.

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There is a team with heads hanging from tired shoulders and a coach clearly getting stuck into them. What he says can only be imagined. And the imagination says that he might be using all his menu of four-lettered words.

The team walks on to the field for a second half trailing by a big score. In the ensuing fourty minutes, they go from 8-31 down to win 45-34 in one of the biggest ever test-turnarounds.

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By the final whistle the hanging heads were from Los Pumas, the team that should have won that night in Salta.

Fast forward four more years and Los Pumas were leading by a smaller margin, but putting the Wallabies under pressure and forcing them to give away some unnecessary penalties – eleven in the first half.

The changing room was similar in size and the camera position almost the same. It was the Pumas’ shed where Michael Cheika, no longer in the Wallaby camp but now with Argentina, was taking a much softer approach during his half-time talk.

When asked by RugbyPass earlier in the previous week what language would he use in a similar situation, he smiled and said that “I’ll say all I can in Spanish; there are moments when I want to speak in Spanish but sometimes I don’t have the words.”

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“When I speak in English, players translate to each other which is better than having a translator as they speak and communicate amongst themselves.”

Would his new team have understood his half-time speech in 2018? “They understand tone very well.”

With the team leading, maybe there wasn’t need for harsh words, only reminders of what had to be done in the final forty minutes.

Maybe the tone wasn’t right as Los Pumas were one team in the opening forty minutes, another team in the following twenty and seemed to lose the plot in the final twenty, when the Wallaby bench proved stronger than the Argentine.

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Much of this seems to come down to the mental strength that seemed absent when it was most needed.

Mental health was overflying the opening weekend of The Rugby Championship as Wallaby captain Michael Hooper found it in him to voice his need for a break from the pressures of the game.

His valiant, and quiet decision spoke loudly about the pressures for players at the highest echelons.

As much as fitness, tactical capacity and technical prowess is needed, not being able to close down a game has more to do with the mind than the standard of an individual player or the team.

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With staffs growing in numbers, few have an in-house professional to lead the much-needed mental aspects.

Players do work on mental skills but, is it enough? Los Pumas travelled on tour last year with a mental coach, probably too late for an unhappy squad; it showed on the field of play.
Whatever is done, it seems insufficient for the real needs.

From a distance, watching the All Blacks being pushed and shoved right, left and centre by a motivated Springbok side smelling blood, was clear.

Have players such as Beauden Barrett, Sam Cane or Sam Whitelock, to name three, forgotten how to play the game? Reaching that high standard takes an uncommon dedication and effort over many years.

If the mind is not right, all of this can be lost in a couple of games, even a couple of minutes and the downward spiral hard to stop.

The All Blacks could be back to their best on Saturday at Ellis Park. If it happens, will it mean they re-learnt how to play the game? No.

Probably it will have been because their mindset was back to where it had to be to play at this standard. Or they were mentally stronger than an always mentally strong Springboks.

There is, of course, too much noise around them, which doesn’t help. And knowing it can get louder puts them under even more pressure.

Not with Argentina. The pressure is of course there, but not in the way it is put on player’s shoulders in other countries. Much loved and supported, and always constantly punching above their weight, some losses are expected.

Yet, they did not find it in them to win the game against a Wallaby side that was there for the taking, at least on the evidence available in the opening half. That hurts.

They’d gone to the changing room with a penalty count of only three and got to double digits in the second.

Their kick-offs were not very imaginative and giving away soft penalties after almost each one of them, only gave Australia momentum.

Wanting to send a get-well-soon message to their captain Michael Hooper, the Wallabies were let out of jail a few times. Penalties that were kicked to touch provided two maul tries and a penalty try with a yellow try as bonus.

“Unacceptable,” said Cheika at the end of the game.

Australia took their opportunities, showed hunger and came through.

Mentally strong, with the clock in the red, they still wanted the winning bonus point. In a seesaw couple of minutes that seemed like an untidy training session, they got that try.

What seemed a forward pass in the game’s last pass was not deemed so and moving to the next game, Australia are in the right frame of mind and Argentina, that left the Malvinas Argentinas Stadium with heads hanging, need to work on how to raise themselves and go for the win.

They are all good players, many have beaten the Wallabies before. It will come down to have well prepared they are.

Mentally prepared.

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J
Jon 6 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

33 Go to comments
A
Adrian 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

33 Go to comments
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