To say that we are extremely happy and proud from our Pumas is not enough. Rugby was a sport for the elite for many years, most players learned in exclusive private schools, founded by the British or the Irish communities, but this was the past. Nowadays, there are dozens of rugby clubs throughout Argentina, each year we have thousands of new players. Indeed as I said the huge Irish and British communities had a remarkable role when they introduced rugby in our country with the turn of the XIX century, like they did with others as well (polo, tennis, football). We had failed as a nation in many fields in the past decades, but at least in sports we are doing quite well. In the case of rugby thanks to our Pumas, in particular the Contempomi brothers, chiefly Felipe, Agustin Pichot, Juan Martin Hernandez, Corleto and the rest of our team, had shown not only that they are magnificent players, but true gentlemen as well, they never played in a dirty or disloyal way, fair play is part of their way of life and way of playing. If they win the match this Sunday, the whole nation will “serrer les rangs” with them, we love and cherish them as our best ambassadors in the world, like Adolfo Cambiaso or the Pieres brothers are in polo. Last but not least we hope that they will win the World Cup, but if this does not happen, just to play the semi-final is a great achievement. We are quite aware that the Springboks are not an easy team, perhaps the best in this World Cup, they demolished England in their first match, but we must wait and see. Our Pumas were received by many in Europe with a high degree of contempt, was not the case of the English press, but the rugby world should recognize that our Pumas are capable of winning any tournament, they have a duty to accept this fact and not blocked their chances to play other championships like the one between SA, NZ and Australia, or the European one. We must be grateful with the London Telegraph, The Times and other British and Irish papers as well for its wonderful and quite unbiased coverage of our Pumas campaign and to you dear Pumas eternal glory and we salute you with all our hearts and minds, wishing you a complete triumph until you reach the title, with our Good Lord’s help.
