Michael Cheika’s reinvention as a mellow tactician has been vital to Argentina's success
The Pumas have slowly but surely reached the semi-finals and under their calm coach have what it takes to shock the All Blacks on Friday
From golf-club swinging firebrand to mellower multi-tasker, the evolution of Michael Cheika has been an intriguing subplot of Argentina’s campaign at this World Cup. And if you could hand-pick someone to spearhead a gutsy attempt to upset the odds, the Pumas head coach would be among the most obvious candidates.
Helped by their own schedule, Argentina have prowled furthest under the radar of the four World Cup semi-finalists. Following their 27-10 loss to England in Marseille, with a frankly terrible performance, the Pumas had a week off before recovering with wins over Samoa, Chile and Japan.
After they had ousted Wales in the quarter-final, surviving a sluggish start and eventually looking more like the team that had been expected to bloody the nose of England, Cheika was a picture of calm. Speaking in Spanish – he also has a grasp of Arabic, French and Italian – he explained how the Pumas were always likely to settle into the tournament gradually, not least because of the number of World Cup rookies in their ranks.
Pointing out that “I have come to this tournament with different teams at different times” was a subtle flex from Cheika. Experience counts for so much at World Cups because the games seem to create their own chaotic ecosystem. Cheika brought the 2015 Wallabies to the final before the 2019 vintage were knocked out of the last eight by England and Eddie Jones, his old Randwick team-mate.
If any Pumas players felt downhearted or disillusioned in the wake of their first match at Stade Vélodrome, the response would have been simple: keep winning, and we will be back here. Cheika, who has framed every match as a final, is clearly good at communication and conjuring imagery. Among his most famous ploys was handing out engraved golf clubs to each member of his New South Wales Waratahs squad prior to their Super Rugby final against the Crusaders in 2014. The message? Have a swing at this and do not regret anything. The Waratahs beat a star-studded team 33-32.
Cheika has endeavoured to turn Argentina into a team that is more comfortable possession, and they held the ball for longer periods than Wales last weekend. Facundo Isa carried 13 times for 52 metres from No 8, with fly-half Santiago Carreras a constant threat as well. Tenacious disruption, though, is in their DNA. Crucial to Argentina’s qualification for the semi-final was derailing four Wales line-outs and spoiling four more rucks. A last-gasp tackle from Matías Moroni on Louis Rees-Zammit encapsulated their spirit.
Despite a demeanour that is generally composed, Cheika can still grow animated in the coaches’ box, occasionally smacking his desk or decrying refereeing decisions theatrically. He has not forgotten how to circle the wagons in spiky style, either. At the beginning of this week, he hit out at organisers for not allowing the Pumas to travel up from the Côte d’Azur to Paris on Sunday, suggesting that bias was being shown towards the teams already based in the capital. It smelled of a storyteller attempting to add fuel to fire up his own narrative as Argentina bid for a maiden World Cup final. Not that there is much further need to view the Pumas as underdogs.
The aggregate scoreline over the past two matches between them and New Zealand is 94-15 to the All Blacks, a stark reflection of dominance. Just three months ago, Argentina conceded three tries in the first 11 minutes of a thrashing in Mendoza. To put a different spin on things, the Pumas have overturned the All Blacks twice since 2020. And there is an argument that if they do land a victory on Friday evening, it would only be their second most surprising win over this formidable opponent.
Nothing, surely, will usurp the triumph three years ago in Sydney, which followed a build-up that was extraordinarily compromised by the pandemic. Before the Pumas squad left for the Antipodes, players were running drills with imaginary balls for fear of spreading Covid. At one stage, according to a Sydney Morning Herald report, four coaches had to isolate in an abandoned house in Buenos Aires.
The magnificence of Pablo Matera, now out injured, has been a common theme of Argentina’s two wins over the All Blacks. But there are a number of Pumas to have been involved in both the 2020 feat and a 2022 success in Christchurch, from Julián Montoya and Marcos Kremer to Gonzalo Bertranou and Santiago Carreras.
Last autumn, Cheika guided Argentina past England at Twickenham while simultaneously overseeing Lebanon’s Rugby League World Cup campaign. With just a single side to concentrate on, he could be even more dangerous.
