Pumas a scalpel in Contepomi’s hands
Felipe Contepomi’s rugby and medical careers collide in a Pumas team now carving up Test rugby’s biggest names, writes MARK KEOHANE.
Writing for the Sunday Times, Keohane highlights how head coach Felipe Contepomi has developed Argentina into the surprise package of Test rugby.
It’s no coincdience that the Pumas head coach has brought a surgeon’s precision to his team’s attack.
Contepomi played 87 Tests for Argentina, many alongside his identical twin Manuel. A standout in the 2007 World Cup, he also balanced professional rugby for Leinster with completing medical studies at Dublin’s Royal College of Surgeons, graduating in 2007 and working at Beaumont Hospital.
After retiring at Club Newman in Buenos Aires, he combined coaching with his medical career, later returning to Dublin as backs coach for Leinster before joining the Pumas setup.
“The Pumas backs now have the sharpness of a surgeon’s blade,” writes Keohane. “They also play with a similar precision.”
Contepomi has spoken about rugby and medicine complementing each other, with focus under pressure, teamwork and discipline central to both fields.
Keohane contrasts Contepomi with the other 2024 Test coaching appointments – Joe Schmidt at the Wallabies, Scott ‘Razor’ Robertson at the All Blacks and Rassie Erasmus at the Boks. While Robertson arrived with the biggest fanfare, it’s Contepomi who “has produced the sparkle and transformed his team” as the All Blacks struggle for identity.
“Contepomi, for the Pumas, is creating the right kind of winning history,” writes Keohane, noting landmark wins over Test rugby’s biggest teams. Robertson, meanwhile, is “authoring some of the darkest chapters in All Blacks history, conceding 38 points to the Pumas in Wellington and 43 to the Boks in Wellington.”
The narrative flips the Rugby Championship’s expected coaching storyline on its head: “Everyone thought the coaching talk would be Razor Robertson, but it is the coach who operates a scalpel as a surgeon who is making the biggest teams bleed.”
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