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Twenty years ago, while starring for Leinster at five-eighth, Argentina coach Felipe Contepomi thought it would be a good idea to introduce himself to the two new Australian coaches David Knox and Michael Cheika who had moved from Randwick to Dublin to bring belief to a club in desperate need of it.
Contepomi met Knox first and was immediately given some extra study material to help transform him into one of the best playmakers in world rugby. It was a video cassette of Andrew Johns and the Argentine’s first taste of the NRL, which he has ravenously consumed ever since.
“I remember entering the office in Dublin, it was a portacabin (demountable) and when I entered the office, David Knox was there, and he looked at me and said, ‘Hey, chap, do you play ten?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, ten or 12, whatever,’” Contepomi said.
“He grabbed a VHS and threw it to me and said, ‘learn to play like this’, so I grabbed it, and that was all he said.
“I went back home, and I put it on my video recorder, and it was a documentary of Joey Johns’ life. I came back the following day after I watched it and said, ‘this is the wrong sport, this is not rugby, like, it’s another sport’.”
“And he said, ‘if you play like him in rugby union, you’ll be the best in the world, ’ so I started watching a lot of NRL, and that’s how I started following NRL, and Joey Johns, obviously.”
Felipe Contepomi worked as Michael Cheika’s assistant in ArgentinaCredit: AP
Contepomi thrived under the direction of Knox and Cheika, cruelly suffering an injury in the semi-final and missing out on the club’s first-ever European Cup win in 2009 where his deputy Johnny Sexton went on to become one of Ireland’s greatest players.
Cheika also gave Contepomi his first opportunity of coaching international rugby, joining as the Pumas assistant coach under the former Wallabies coach in 2022.
Contepomi has kept in close contact with Cheika and does not doubt that his former coach and mentor would be able to coach in the NRL if the opportunity was available.
“I’ve learned rugby league because of him and Knoxy, he thinks outside the box and the bigger the challenge is, the more he embraces it.So for me, he’ll definitely be successful at rugby league,” Contepomi said.
“And one interesting thing that I’ve always asked him (Cheika), because it’s very interesting how you see a lot of rugby league coaches coming into rugby union, but not that many from rugby union to rugby league.
“It’s difficult to get in rugby league, but I think with the openness of his mind and bringing things from rugby union into rugby league and his way of experimenting with things, he’ll be very successful in rugby league. I’m sure he will.”
Felipe Contepomi playing for Argentina in the 2011 World CupCredit: The Press
The greatest parting gift that Cheika left the Pumas, according to Contepomi was giving belief to players that previously doubted they could take on the best teams in the world.
“I think Cheika is a winner and his winning mentality is unbelievable, so for me as a player, that’s the first thing I’ve learned from him, but also when I became an assistant, I’ve learned he instilled a winning mentality,” Cheika said.
“He instils that belief, it’s hard to explain it in one word because it’s an everyday thing. It’s how he sets up the standards, how he just goes and says, ‘boys, we’ll do this’. Or how he prepares and sometimes not all the shots work, but he still keeps firing shots and he’s a guy that is really positive.”
On Saturday, Contepomi will face another familiar Wallabies coach, Joe Schmidt. Although Contepomi just missed out on playing under Schmidt while at Leinster, he did engage regularly with the New Zealander while he was leading Ireland. Contepomi’s work as an assistant coach at Leinster gave him a close view of Schmidt’s ability to pull apart game plans and make them perfect.
“He (Schmidt) did beautiful things, and I always loved his detail and how Leinster played and then how Ireland played under him and how they dominated,” Contepomi said.
“Previously, an Irish team or an Argentine team were more different, we don’t have those (Pacific), Islanders, it was difficult to dominate New Zealand or South Africa or Australia.
“I saw Ireland win and I said, well, if Ireland can do it, why can’t Argentina? And it all started, like, Joe was kind of the guy that implemented or started making Ireland that sort of team...I still keep in touch with him all the time because I think he’s a brilliant guy and has a brilliant rugby brain.”
The last time Contepomi faced Schmidt, the Wallabies lost 67-27 to the Pumas in Santa Fe. As a qualified doctor, Contepomi understands that one badly off-colour day does not denote an emergency. Similarly, the former playmaker is expecting a far more dangerous Wallabies side on Saturday in Townsville.
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“For me, this game starts from zero, it (Santa Fe) was a year ago, it was one of those days, the week before they beat us,” Contepomi said.
“It was one of those days that maybe things came our way, but I think I’m really expecting a very tough encounter because I think Australia, it’s always been a nation with unbelievable athletes.
“You can see it. You come to Australia and you see people and they are all athletes. They all swim, they all jump, they all run, they do everything.
“So when you play against Australia, you know you’re going to play against a team of athletes. So it’s a huge challenge for us in terms of how to try to impose our game plan against a team that you know that if you give them one chance, they’ll take it and they are lethal. They’re ruthless... so we need to be at our best if we want to get on the right side of the result.”
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