While England ponder whether to take the advice that to succeed in international rugby you need an experienced coach, who has a successful track record, Argentina are one victory away from the World Cup final under Daniel Hourcade, whose high point before taking charge of the Pumas two years ago was as a member of Portugal’s management team in the 2007 World Cup.
Whatever the outcome of Sunday’s semi-final between Argentina and Australia at Twickenham, Hourcade has transformed the Pumas from a side that revelled in confrontation to one that is now free-scoring. Culture was one of the first words uttered by Stuart Lancaster when he was appointed England’s head coach, but it has tended to manifest itself off the field rather than on it, where the thinking was sometimes muddled. Hourcade has brought clarity.
Warren Gatland has been touted as a potential successor to Lancaster for the very good reasons of his success with Wales, which followed trophy-laden stints with Wasps and Waikato. The Wales head coach took seven years to mastermind victories over Australia and South Africa, a feat Hourcade oversaw in less than two.
“Daniel’s philosophy is that to win matches you have to attack and score points,” says the Argentina scrum coach, Emiliano Bergamaschi. “Before him, our game was based on the scrum, lineout and an aggressive defence, so it was a big change in approach. It was not easy for him to convince everyone and it is fair to say that the players saw its merit before the coaches. We are still serious about our rugby but it is now also about having fun.”
Hourcade was 55 when he took over from Santiago Phelan just before the start of Argentina’s 2013 autumn tour of Europe. Phelan resigned after reports of discontent in the squad – they had lost 73-13 to South Africa that August – and, while some called for an experienced foreign coach to be appointed with the World Cup less than two years away and a potentially tricky group that included Tonga and Georgia as well as New Zealand, the Argentina union summoned Hourcade, who for the previous three years had been in charge of the Pampas XV, a development team operating in South Africa.
Hourcade had started his coaching career in Tucumán in the north-west of Argentina at the Universitario club, before taking charge of the Argentina Under-21s side and then the sevens team. He moved to Portugal in 2004 to take charge of a club, Desportivo Direito, and the national sevens side. He was an assistant coach in the 2007 World Cup and took charge of Portugal Women before moving to France, where he coached the lower league side Stade Rouennais. He returned to Argentina in 2010, coaching the Jaguars – the A side – and the Pampas, who competed in the Vodacom Cup.
It is not a CV that would commend itself to those calling for England to appoint a Gatland, Joe Schmidt or Eddie Jones after the failure to get past the World Cup group stage. “I was surprised when Daniel got the job,” says the Leicester prop Marcos Ayerza, who made his international debut in 2004. “We were wondering if they would appoint a foreign coach but they went for someone who had come through the ranks. He made some hard decisions straight away that made everyone question him, but as soon as we started playing, the doubts melted away. Looking back, I am surprised at just how quickly he banished the Argentina approach of old that many in the squad, including me, had grown up with. I did not think we could change, but look at us now.”
The scrum-half Tomás Cubelli was in Hourcade’s first Pampas squad. “We were very successful under him,” he says. “We played good rugby so our style of play now is not a surprise to me. Every Argentinian team plays with its heart and we learn that in our clubs. We are passionate and play without fear even in the pressurised world of international rugby. We look on the other teams in the Rugby Championship as equals and we play with ambition.”
In one of his early interviews before his first game in charge against England at Twickenham, Hourcade used the word joy a lot. He felt that the performances on the pitch reflected a bad atmosphere within the squad and set himself the target of building a team. It meant investing in youth and a number of senior players, including the second-row Patricio Albacete, who had a public falling-out with the coach, were discarded.
A beneficiary of Albacete’s banishment is the 20-year-old lock Guido Petti. “The coach has revolutionised our game,” he says. “Before him we were a bit rustic but now we want to move the ball and create. We are more like Australia, still strong in the basics of the game, but attack-minded. He has given young players like me a chance and the outlook for Argentina is good. I do not see why we cannot be world champions in the future.”
The former Argentina fly-half Hugo Porta said before the start of the tournament that he felt the Pumas had the capacity to reach the final, so impressed was he with the progress made under Hourcade. “What made Daniel the right appointment was his passion for the game,” says Bergamaschi. “He had a long career at various levels and he was really good at the Pampas. He deserved his promotion and we have a game now where everyone is playing everywhere without losing sight of our traditional strengths. What he has achieved is amazing.”
To Ayerza, a prop whose love of scrummaging has not dimmed in the new era, the early questioning of Hourcade’s transformative approach has turned to respect. “Two years on, we are a totally different team,” he says. “The proof is in the playing and his way is the right way. We have a mix of the Argentina traditions of scrum, defence, passion and aggression, but now we also have flair and an expansive game. It is a southern hemisphere style.”
It was Argentina’s presence in the Rugby Championship that convinced Hourcade the Pumas had to play with sharpened claws rather than bared teeth. “To beat New Zealand, Australia and South Africa you have to take risks,” he said earlier this year, “not wait for them to make mistakes. We have grown a lot in the tournament and it has changed our mindset. We have widened our playing base, giving a chance to those who had the ability but not the experience, and we have improved our attacking game. From next year, when we have a team in Super Rugby, we will have the same season as the other three and not be reliant on players based in Europe.” Daniel went into the lion’s den and came out roaring.
