RWC 2015: Argentina vs Australia preview - Marcelo Bosch relishing last hurrah for stylish Pumas

Pride in South Americans’ progress more than offsets centre’s sadness at nearing his Test farewell

Marcelo Bosch wins his 39th cap today after missing the quarter-final (Getty)

Amid the euphoria following Argentina’s quarter-final win over Ireland, one man let out a long sigh of relief. Marcelo Bosch thought he had blown it. He thought his tip tackle on Namibia’s Theuns Kotze had ended his Test career.

His ban was only one week, but that was quarter-final week, and who genuinely expected Argentina to get past Joe Schmidt’s Ireland?

Maybe, at the age of 31, that was it. Bosch’s last memory of playing for his country would be sitting in the stands at Leicester as the potential cost of his stupidity was brought home to him. So when Argentina roared past the Irish in Cardiff to give the centre another chance, Bosch could barely contain his joy.

Restored to the starting line-up in the only change from the side that eviscerated Ireland, Bosch intends to leave a rather better impression against Australia. “It was a dream for me to play last week,” he says. “To blow it with a silly mistake was really depressing and sad.

“That’s why it was very sad last week because, perhaps, it would be no more Argentina for me. Do I owe my team-mates after last week? Yes. The boys were unbelievable on Sunday. They showed me during the whole week – them, the coaches, the officials, everyone, my wife – lots of support to me. They did really well and put us in the semi-final. We now have another opportunity to play. I am really happy about this.”

The challenge is to play in the manner and style they have been doing all tournament. If there is one thing the Argentinians have shown so far in this tournament, it is that they have All Black DNA.

Their recent progress has come as a surprise to some, but not to themselves. The key moment in their advancement came when they joined the Rugby Championship in 2012 after attempts to expand the Six Nations to seven failed. Shortly afterwards, New Zealand’s World Cup-winning coach Graham Henry came on board as a consultant with a simple message: attack.

A total of 26 tries and 222 points in five games at this World Cup tells the story. The Argentinian hierarchy are well aware of their luck in aligning themselves with the southern rather than northern hemisphere.

“It is more dynamic,” says Bosch of the difference in rugby styles between the hemispheres. “If we hadn’t joined the Rugby Championship perhaps we would not be in the place we are now, playing the game we are playing. You learn a lot because you play against the best teams in the world. When you play them twice every year you learn and you get stronger – if not, you get decapitated! It is lucky for us we continue to have that experience every year and improve.

“And in our first years it was very important to have Graham Henry with us. We discovered the Rugby Championship with him. He helped us a lot in every manner.

“Since then and now with Daniel [Hourcade, the head coach] I think the way Argentina plays started to change bit by bit to arrive where we are now playing, confident about what we do on the field.”

Victory over the Springboks in Durban in August gave notice that Argentina are no longer bound for the guillotine. Indeed, there is a feeling this tournament is the start of something rather than the end of a cycle. An Argentinian team will compete in Super Rugby – the southern hemisphere’s premier club competition – from next year, and a number of players are returning from Europe to join them. Yet there is sadness too. Argentina are unlikely to pick players based abroad and Bosch, with two years left on his Saracens contract, doesn’t want to return home.

Other foreign-based players, such as Juan Martin Hernandez and Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, will almost certainly join him in international retirement. But despite the loss of those elder heads, Bosch is adamant the future is bright.

“I think it is going to continue to grow a lot with this new team in Super Rugby. All the players that play for the national team will be involved in Super Rugby, so you won’t have players from different structures of play joining the team.

“Lots of young players and talent are arriving so I think it will keep progressing a lot. But for me, or Marcos Ayerza, Horacia Agulla, Lobbe or Juan Figallo, we are in the transition of this progression of Argentininian rugby. That transition, unfortunately, will perhaps mean we won’t be able to play our last years of rugby in the national team.”

So this could be a last hurrah. Bosch is just euphoric he has one more chance to make his country proud. He will return to domestic duties with Saracens after the tournament, where he may be walking into more of a morgue than a party atmosphere. He may have enjoyed a stellar campaign but Owen Farrell, Brad Barritt and others did not with England.

Bosch was surprised no northern-hemisphere side made it to the last four. “I was shocked and I still am,” he says of England’s failings. “I thought they arrived at the World Cup really well prepared, with great Six Nations in the past years. But they had a very difficult pool and unfortunately for them could not qualify.

“I am surprised it is all southern-hemisphere teams in the semi-finals. But we are here and I am happy we are involved.”

Argentina have ensured that the southern takeover is complete.