Much-improved South Americans must maintain discipline to fulfil their potential
If Argentinian coach Hernan Rouco Oliva were to drill a mantra into his team, it would be the words of the late Freddie Mercury, who sang: 'Another one gone ... and another one gone ... another one bites the dust.'
For Oliva hopes that the hard-learned lessons of the last two IRB Sevens tournaments in Wellington and Los Angeles can be translated into World Cup success, come Sunday for the fourth seeds, who were also finalists at the Hong Kong Sevens last year.
Argentina have lost the past two finals to New Zealand. In Wellington, they had Santiago Gomez Cora sent off for biting Tamati Ellison early in the second half and they were down to six men. Cora was later banned for 15 days, meaning the squad were reduced to 11 men for Los Angeles. To teach his squad discipline, Oliva chose not to bring in a replacement.
'I played with 11 men in LA to teach the team a good lesson. If it was an injury, I would have brought in another player. But if we lose by our own mistakes, as we did in Wellington, then they have to pay for it,' he said.
'Cora made a serious mistake in Wellington when he bit an opponent. He was reacting to a situation, something he should not have done as he was red-carded. He had been grabbed by the testicles and he bit. I was disappointed that he reacted.
