The roots to today’s semi-final between Australia and Argentina at Twickenham were put down 12 years ago when the two teams last played each other at a Rugby World Cup.
Matt Giteau and Juan Martin Hernandez were handed their World Cup debuts when they came on as replacements during the Wallabies’ 24-8 victory at Sydney.
The two former Toulon teammates will now line up opposite each other with their bag of tricks at inside centre.
Giteau now is in possession of 100 caps. Hernandez boasts over 50.
Up front, warhorse hooker Mario Ledesma started that match for Argentina but is now the forwards coach for Australia. He has fashioned the Wallabies’ pack into a unit that is no longer the laughing stock of the northern hemisphere.
Australia’s forwards have rarely taken a backward step this tournament and their driving maul has generated several tries.
Ledesma has put his soul into Australia’s eight, so much so that when Australia travelled to Mendoza during the Rugby Championship he asked coach Michael Cheika whether he could sing his own national anthem.
Cheika has had to sometimes make do with lieutenants who do not speak English as well has he might have hoped in his varied career as a coach.
There are no issues on that count with Ledesma.
In addition to his ability to speak English, he clearly talks the language of rugby with his forwards.
He also has been known to wear his heart on his sleeve in the dressing room by shedding a few tears.
Argentina last played in a World Cup semi-final in 2007 at Paris, when they were dismantled by South Africa with Ledesma playing alongside today’s starters of Hernandez and Juan Martin Fernandez-Lobbe.
Since 2012, Argentina have been afforded a place in the faster, more precise and expansive Rugby Championship instead of the partisan and brutal Six Nations.
Playing against New Zealand, South Africa and Australia regularly has resulted in Argentina taking huge strides to the point that they approach today’s game with confidence rather than in trepidation.
They beat South Africa this year, and Australia last season, and in Juan Imhoff they have one of the tournament’s leading finishers with five tries.
Over the period of time from Sydney 2003, Argentina have grown and England have fallen from world champions to also-rans. But Argentina face the most experienced Wallabies side ever seen at a World Cup.
Should they take a giant step forward by swatting aside Australia for just the third time since 1997, it would be just reward for those 12 years of hard work.
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