‘We’ve done it our way’: the passion and the pride behind rise of Argentina

Santiago Gómez Cora is suffering from serious FOMO. The former Los Pumas Sevens star, and Argentina’s head coach since 2013, will be recovering from back surgery in Buenos Aires while his players defend their title in Perth.

“I can’t believe I am not going,” he said, with the tone of a bereft father. “Since becoming coach I have missed only one training session in 12 years. It was in Hong Kong, when I had a temperature of 39 and I couldn’t get out of bed. That was the only time I wasn’t with my players in all this time.”

He’s longing to make the 25-hour journey to Western Australia – and this from a man who swore to himself that once he hung up his boots, he was done with travelling. 

Santi’s glittering career as a player has seen him cross the world, winning cup finals in Los Angeles and San Diego, a runners-up World Cup medal in Dubai, scoring tries pretty much everywhere. Thrilling, yes. But exhausting.

“I stopped playing on the Series because of all the travelling,” he said. “I was so tired of all the trips around the world.”

The idea was to put the trophies on the shelf, let the passport gather dust, and work behind the rugby scenes at the IRPA and Argentine Rugby Union. Which he did, comfortably, happily and successfully. 

But one day in 2013, there was a knock on the door. Sevens had been made an Olympic sport, “and I was asked to be the head coach. In 2013 we started the process to go to Rio in 2016”.

And what a process it has been. The passport hasn’t had much rest since.

Santi’s first tournament in charge was the Gold Coast 7s, where Argentina lost the Bowl semi-final and finished a lacklustre 11th, and ended up ninth on the Series overall. He had a lot of work to do.

Three years later, Santi’s Pumas qualified for Rio 2016. And at the next Olympics in Tokyo, they were on the podium. Star rookie Marcos Moneta – with a sparkling winner against Team GB – secured bronze.

“In the beginning, I didn’t know how to get us to the top positions. Now we always start as competitors. In three seasons we finished third [on the Series], then in second, and now in first place.”

Argentina missed out on an Olympic medal in Paris, but for a large part of that season were the best team in the world. And in HSBC SVNS 2024 they secured the League title for the very first time.

“We are so proud,” Santi said, always using “we” when talking of his team’s success, “because we have developed all our own players during that time. Today, Argentina competes against all of the teams on the HSBC SVNS Series and we have done it our way.”

And, what is that way? For Santi, the long-term core of his squad makes the difference.

“We are not a host nation on the Series, which affects the budget we work with and the travelling we do. And we don’t have a fully professional 15s league here so we can’t just pick players from other competitions when we like. 

“While every year we try to find new players, many of them have been with us for a long time: like Santiago Álvarez, German Schulz and, of course, [the recently retired] Gastón Revol. They all started with us 11 or more years ago.”

It’s rare these days for a sevens player to make it to a full decade. The longevity of Santi Gómez Cora’s squad bears testimony to his investment in them – a level of loyalty and support that sees him itching to escape back surgery and be with them on the sideline in Perth. 

He knows that it is not only training and competition that are crucial, but human connections, character and team spirit. 

He has this to say of Los Pumas’ 2024 season, which began with a glorious run of tournament wins, but ended in disappointment after an injury to Moneta: “We missed him not just as a player but as a person, too, because Marcos is very important for the team, even the spirit of the team. He is always smiling, the person that if you look for if you are sad or you need an answer to something. He’s so positive.”

As well as Moneta, Argentina were missing 2023 World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year Rodrigo Isgró, off the pitch due to a three-match ban. 

After a red card against France in the HSBC SVNS Grand Final in Madrid, Isgró’s first eligible game of the Olympics, also against France, was the quarter-final. And that Olympics, as we all saw, belonged to hosts France – and to Antoine Dupont.

“France peaked at the right time,” said Santi. “When you’re the host nation you may have more budget and motivation, I don’t know, and they put in some players from the Top14, like Dupont. 

“We had beaten France in some other quarter-finals on the Series. Obviously, the most important time to win was at the Olympics, because we all work for that – but that’s the game of sevens.”

It is clear from Santi’s tone that he believes he is managing a team of champions, in whom he passionately believes. “It’s my personality – also Argentina’s. We are all passionate. But it’s easier as player. As a coach it is not easy to control emotions. Just like in football, it’s the same 100 percent passion in rugby, we all live through sport in that same way. This is the way we love the game, the sport.”

So as Argentina go about defending their Perth crown, they’ll be without their head coach, pitchside talisman and father figure. 

Santi assures us he’ll be back for Vancouver – and I’d put money on that happening, even if it means him walking the 12,000 miles on painkillers and crutches. 

But for a rare sevens weekend we’ll have to live without the passionate half-time team talks, the gesticulations at the referees’ box, the entertaining in-game interviews. But if Los Pumas do win then we can all be sure of one thing – that with or without Santi – there will be dancing!