Contepomi Focuses on Argentina’s Performance Over Personal History in Ireland

Felipe Contepomi, who became Argentina’s head coach after Michael Cheika following the 2023 World Cup, will be a familiar presence in the opposing coaches’ box at the Aviva Stadium during Friday’s match against Ireland. This visit from Argentina follows considerable attention given to former head coach Joe Schmidt’s impending return when Ireland hosts Australia later this month. Contepomi, the Pumas’ head coach, previously played for Leinster with distinction for six years between 2003 and 2009, and later returned as the province’s attack coach for four seasons starting in 2018. The 47-year-old, who qualified as a doctor while a Leinster player, has “really good memories” of Dublin, having spent significant periods of his playing and coaching career in Ireland. He stated, “It’s always good to be back. I love Dublin and Ireland.” Contepomi added, “I’ve got one son and a daughter who were born in Ireland as well. Unluckily, they are not Irish because of the rules or whatever, but many milestones in my life happened here in Ireland, definitely.” He further remarked, “I spent 10 years here. It’s a lot of my adulthood. I’m 47 so say from 17 to here, 10 years is a third of my [adult] life in Dublin, so that’s a lot, and I’m grateful.” However, the World Rugby Hall of Fame inductee is more focused on his team’s performance on Friday night than on personal history. Ireland has won 13 of the 19 Tests played between the two nations, including all 10 matches held in Dublin. Contepomi commented, “It’s not about me bringing the national team here. We have the chance, as Argentina, to play against one of the best teams in the last few years.” He continued, “Ireland has been consistently in the top three for the last six, seven years, so it is a great opportunity for us. We are always very proud to come here and try to beat Ireland, which, by the way, we have never done here in Ireland.” He concluded, “I think it’s a big challenge, a great challenge, but we always want to play against the best and that’s what we are preparing for.” With many of Ireland’s players originating from Leinster, Contepomi has coached five of Ireland’s seven starting backs. The former fly-half noted that this also means Andy Farrell’s players are familiar with his tactical approaches, and therefore he does not believe his insights will be a major advantage on Friday. He remarked, “Maybe it could have been an advantage if I could have played.” Contepomi elaborated, “You can know the players, and I’ve coached them, but it’s our players who need to go and do their homework and know who they are playing against. So I don’t know if it’s an advantage. It’s the same way as those players know how I think as well, so it works both ways.” As an assistant coach at Leinster, Contepomi worked with numerous members of the current Irish squad. In his 10 games since taking over from Michael Cheika after last year’s World Cup, Contepomi’s Argentina has achieved notable victories. They split their summer series with France and defeated Australia, South Africa, and the All Blacks (the latter in New Zealand) in the Rugby Championship. However, the former Bristol and Toulon player does not use results as his primary measure of progress. He explained, “Results gives you confidence, definitely, but more for us the progress is trying to do what we say we are going to do, or trying to, what we train to do, and then go and do it on match day.” Contepomi provided an example: “I give you a very simple example, we beat South Africa in Santiago [in September] but it came up to the last minute where [Manie] Libbok missed a penalty. What if he would have got that penalty? Would that have changed our way of evaluating ourselves?” He continued, “Now from the outside, you change the evaluation because you say, ‘oh, you beat the double world champions’, you know?” He concluded on this point, “For us it’s the same, how we evaluate. We know we are in progress because the things we say we are going to do, we are doing them more frequently than not on game day.”