RUGBY: JOHNNY WATTERSONretraces the history of the simmering Ireland-Argentina rivalry and hears a view from their camp on this latest instalment

LOS PUMAS arrived to their Dublin hotel yesterday amid relative calm. More a purr than a growl. But the friendly smiles of Argentinian rugby belie a feral nature and their matches with Ireland have grown over the years to house a mean, edgy streak that makes Sunday’s appointment more than just the last match of the November series.

Maybe not as big box office as the All Blacks, Argentina, with Felipe Contepomi captaining the side, arrive for their first Aviva experience thinking similar thoughts to those of Ireland. They dream of beating a team close to them in the world pecking order so achieving a result that will launch them into a World Cup year and subvert the IRB ranking of eighth to Ireland’s seven.

History between the sides is distinctly tetchy. Remember Contepomi’s cheeky sledging in Ronan O’Gara’s ear, and the inferences from the Irish pack that the Argentinian brand of rugby wasn’t always cricket? Today, though, they are pussy cats in flip-flops and tee-shirts. Gonzalo Tiesi, the former London Irish and Harlequins and current centre at Stade Francais is all smiles and Byronic curls.

“I think inside the pitch it has been very tough to win the games and it will be the same in the future. It will remain tough and aggressive, within the laws of the game,” he says. “We have built up a rivalry with Ireland but we have the same against France, maybe because they’re teams we’ve played a lot in the last few years. Every time we see each other again maybe we are thinking about the last time or what’s going to happen in the future.”

Tiesi knows the Irish, especially the centres. He played in the ‘Bloodgate’ match with Harlequins against Leinster in last season’s Heineken Cup quarter-final. At Stade Francais he now answers to former Leinster ring master, Michael Cheika. “I have played against a few of them. I had the opportunity to play in that famous game in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup,” he says, also claiming ignorance of blood capsules.

“I played against Irish players several times when I was with London Irish so I know them pretty well. A lot of the players have been playing at this level for a long time now. But they have brought in young players like Ferris and Rob Kearney. They have been playing for three or four years but they are still young.”

Were the artist who paints at the side of the Stade de France pitch during Six Nations matches between Ireland and France to do an Ireland encounter against Argentina he might produce a ghoulish Francis Bacon triptych. The games have been intense with a lot of dull thuds, low-speed collisions and wrestling limbs. There is beauty to be found in the grunt and tangle but not all of it obvious.

“Maybe our game is not – how would you say – good to look at, or entertaining. But it is effective,” says Tiesi shrugging. “If you look at our game against France . . . normally France are a team that like to throw the ball around, play it wide and are also pretty strong up front.

“But we have a style of game that’s maybe hard to play against. We don’t have the best effect with the ball in hand but we work hard in defence, we try to slow the ball up. And maybe we play in a way that Ireland aren’t used to when they play in the Six Nations.”

Bringing a difficult style to Ballsbridge they believe will bring unity to a team often left on the periphery. But Argentina look to matches like these as base-camp stops on the way to the peaks of World Cup tournaments and in 2012 entry to the Tri-Nations. Higher status is around the corner. But they wish to earn it first.

“To finish with a win is going to be very important to the team,” says Tiesi. “It is going to be bring the team much more together, the unity and strength of the team is going to shine more.

“Very much the game is like a final. This tour we separated into three parts. Italy was one tour, France was another tour and this was the last tour. I told you the last 20 minutes of France was very good for us. If we can maintain that way of playing, that is going to be very positive.”

Lots of light between the players! That would be something.