Contepomi ‘excited about the appointment’ of Noel McNamara to Leinster job but his focus is on a first away win over Ireland

It’s a familiar verbal dance, more waltz than tango: press conference polite. Argentina head coach Felipe Contepomi is back on familiar territory, which brings a background level of ease. He touches on that fact when asked about catching up with former team-mates and coaching buddies from his days at Leinster. “It’s always great to be here, personally I feel very comfortable.”

Speaking of which, he had previously explained that any desire to succeed Leo Cullen as head coach of the Irish province when the latter steps down at the end of the current season was incompatible in aligning with the timeline commitment that Leinster required.

It didn’t necessitate a second airing. Instead, he was asked if he thought Noel McNamara was a good appointment to replace Cullen?

“I don’t know if it’s me to say if it’s good or bad,” he said, before the question was reframed to make it feel less like entrapment.

Are you excited about it? “Yes, I’m excited because I know Noel. I know him very well. I’ve worked with him. He’s a top guy. He knows [Leinster] from the inside out, so I’m excited about the appointment.”

That was a peripheral issue. Contepomi returns to Dublin looking to secure a first ever victory over Ireland on Irish soil at the Aviva Stadium on Friday night (8.10pm). It would represent a notable scalp. He offered context.

“Well, it’s the only team we haven’t beaten away from home yet so it would mean a lot. But I think more so it’s for us to try to get better, be competitive against the third [-ranked] team in the world, and one of the best four teams in the last 15 years or so. For us it’s just going and playing against one of those top, top teams in the world, being competitive and trying to impose our game or our game plan.

“The result comes with a lot of variables and the only one we control is the one that we evaluate ourselves from, and that’s imposing our game plan and doing what we said we were going to do. If that takes us to a good result, [so] much [the] better.”

In pursuit of that goal Contepomi has made 12 changes to the team that drew 28-28 with Australia. The only survivors from that game at the Estadio Malvinas Argentinas in the first week in September are loosehead prop Boris Wenger, secondrow Guido Petti, who played at openside flanker that day, and number eight Pablo Matera, who was at blindside against the Aussies.

For a variety of reasons including injury, club commitments and player welfare Los Pumas are a much stronger proposition based on the selection for the Nations Championship match against Andy Farrell’s team.

Contepomi when asked of his hopes for the upcoming block of games said: “Get better. We need to get better as a team, we need to start making less unforced errors, try to get better at the set-piece. Making sure we are competitive.

“We are playing two of the top four teams [they play France in Paris] and another very much improving team in the last few years, Italy, so I think it’s a massive, massive challenge for us, especially one year to the World Cup. I think we need to get better consistency, do what we say we are going to do and try to impose the way we want to play rugby.”

In the summer leg of the tournament, Argentina lost to Scotland and England at home but beat Wales and Contepomi acknowledged a frustrating inconsistency.

“I think in July we couldn’t get out of the blocks as quickly as we wanted to, and then obviously because of welfare and so on, we rested a lot of players in August and September. We could see a lot of new guys coming through and where they were at and how to get a bit more depth in our squad.

“So overall I think we’ve been competitive, but we lost more than we won, so that’s not good at this level. But I think we’re on the right track and now this November series is a good opportunity to play two of the best four teams in the world.

“We try to play with a lot of intensity, but Ireland does the same. I don’t know if it will cause problems. I think we try to be a team that goes and takes the game from the start, imposing some intensity. We are improving in our set piece.

“I like to think that we are starting to get the right balance on our strategy. We are still a force in progress, if you want to say; we are a team that is progressing and we are just trying to get better every game.”

One of those looking to facilitate that process is new defence coach Shaun Edwards. Contepomi was asked how the appointment came about.

“He was leaving France and his agent contacted me. When you have the possibility of Shaun Edwards contacting you to bring something to your team, I think it was an opportunity. With the backup of the union, they made an effort so we could have him with us. We are very pleased about that. He is a great person in terms of [the] simplicity [that he brings to] rugby, but he also has a great human side. We are very glad to have him on board.”

ARGENTINA: Juan Cruz Mallia (Toulouse); Bautista Delguy (Clermont Auvergne), Justo Piccardo (Montpellier), Santiago Chocobares (Toulouse), Mateo Carreras (Bayonne); Tomas Albornoz (Toulon), Gonzalo Garcia (Pau); Boris Wenger (Harlequins), Julian Montoya (Leicester, capt), Francisco Morena (Newcastle); Guido Petti (Harlequins), Pedro Rubiolo (Bristol); Juan Martin Gonzalez (Saracens), Marcos Kremer (Clermont Auvergne), Pablo Matera (Honda Heat).

Replacements: Leonel Oviedo (Western Force), Mayco Vivas (Oyonnax), Joel Sclavi (Leicester), Efrain Elias (Toulouse), Juan Martin Scelzo (Stade Francais), Simon Benitez Cruz (Newcastle), Geronimo Prisciantelli (Racing 92), Lucio Cinti (Saracens).