RWC 2015 - Argentina vs Australia: How Mario Ledesma got to bottom of scrum woes

The former Argentina hooker, now plotting his own nation’s downfall, approached from below the task of toughening up Australia’s pack

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Michael Hooper had just slotted into his place in the Australia back row in a training session when newly appointed forwards coach Mario Ledesma flipped on to the ground and lay down under the two Wallaby front rows locking horns in training.

Australia’s talismanic flanker recalls thinking: “I had no idea what he was doing. He was crawling through the middle one day and I thought, ‘What is this guy doing?’”

Australia captain and hooker Stephen Moore also recalls Ledesma’s former penchant for lying on the turf unerneath the front row – but he understands the thinking behind a seemingly dangerous habit.

“I think he’s just looking at where guys’ shoulders are, heads and necks, and I think you can pick a lot from that,” Moore says. “He sneaks under there and pulls out.”

The coach no longer adopts this up-close-and-personal approach, adds Moore, using instead the video analysis available from the overhead cameras used in World Cup matches to acquire the same information.

A touch of the maverick verging on madness, whatever it is that Ledesma has brought to the Wallabies side since his appointment by Michael Cheika, with whom he worked at Stade Français, it is clearly working. If Australia can forge a way through tomorrow’s semi-final at Twickenham past a notoriously tough Argentina, for whom Ledesma was the fulcrum for the previous four World Cups, much of that will be down to Super Mario.

There is a respect and fondness for, and occasional bemusement about, the former Pumas hooker but there is no doubting that Australia’s once notoriously fragile pack has been turned from a point of weakness to one of great strength. Ledesma has marshalled a pack that made England and Wales buckle in the pool stages, and appear to be more than a match for the nation of his birth.

He will inevitably suffer conflicting loyalties but Australia have made it clear where his allegiance lies this weekend, something Cheika believes could work to the Wallabies’ advantage.

“It’s an interesting match because we’re against his country of birth and one who he played passionately for,” Cheika said. “It’s like if you play against your old team and go into battle against those guys that have been there for many years it inspires you to be better. With someone like Mario it will be exactly the same. It’s something that will motivate him to do better than he’s ever done before.”

Nevertheless, there will surely be an element of inner turmoil for Ledesma should he play a part in preventing Argentina from making it to their first ever World Cup final. There is no hiding his national fervour – it was there in the tears he occasionally shed as he sang Canción Patriótica, the Argentinian national anthem, when lining up in sky blue and white.

But this is about the day job and his continuing mission “to change the perception” of a Wallaby side that supposedly did not know how to scrummage, as he suggested on his first day in the role. And having made a key contribution to one of the few times the Pumas have beaten the Wallabies – the last time but one, back in 1997 – Ledesma has instilled the necessary ethos into his adopted side’s forwards.

He is still prone to get tearful in a rousing speech to the forwards before a match and that emotional approach has affected the pack. Asked about his influence, Moore said: “There’s a whole range of things. Having someone like Mario there has helped as he’s so passionate about that part of the game. He’s been able to convey that to the players. Over the last six months we’ve spent a little more time on it.”

Another aspect highlighted by coach and players alike is communication. And Cheika – no stranger himself to overcoming language barriers, having had spells coaching in both France and Italy – added: “One of the big reasons why it was easy to bring Mario in is that he’s got a very good way of expressing himself in English.

“It’s one thing speaking the language but another thing making the point in a rugby sense. He was able to conquer that in the early days and be able to get to the heart of the players to work technically and on the mental side – and the passion side as well.”

The Wallabies have not been short of injury problems leading up to tomorrow’s game, Ledesma included after he picked up a calf injury during a game of touch rugby in the build-up this week.

But Ledesma, who Cheika joked “played for 50 years or whatever”, is no longer wanted for his combativity in the set piece or prowess in the loose. Instead, much as Argentina, once revered for their pack, have been one of the most exciting attacking sides in this tournament, he is coveted for the manner in which he has dispelled a stereotypical view of the Australia pack and given the Wallaby scrum fresh belief. From above and below.