To be a Puma is to be a wanderer. They are the nomads of rugby. Without a professional league of their own or even a team any more in Super Rugby, their motto is simple: have boots, will travel.
But even by the standards of Los Pumas, Santiago Cordero is exceptional. Be it as a winger or full-back, the wondrous footwork, acceleration and link play which tormented Ireland in the 2015 World Cup has been a weapon in the Super Rugby championship, the Premiership, the Top 14 and now the URC.
Several others such as Felipe Contepomi, Emiliano Boffelli, Agustin Creevy, Brad Thorn and James Haskell have plied their trade in three of those four competitions and have also had stints in Japan and Argentina. But few, if any, have matched Cordero’s CV.
Naturally, ‘Santi’ speaks good English and amiably recalls his nomadic career over a 45-minute interview. Still only 30, it tells us much about Cordero that he has pitched up in Galway with Connacht, and that he has an acute sense of gratitude and debt to the province.
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A year since he underwent an operation on the ACL injury which effectively made him a spectator for his first season, Cordero is desperate to make up for lost time.
Saturday evening’s clash with the Sharks marks his first start at the Dexcom Stadium. “Thank God I’m feeling well and good now. My body is coming back to what it was before. I’d like to think I will play a lot of games this season.”
Recalled, to his surprise, to his national squad by head coach Contepomi almost a year after his last cap, Cordero’s confidence and fitness have been honed by training and playing three Tests with Argentina.
Los Pumas have beaten the southern hemisphere big three for the first time in the same year and are the only team that can deny South Africa the title ahead of the sides’ clash in Nelspruit today (kick-off 3pm Irish time), albeit they need a bonus point win while denying the Springboks one.
[ Argentina coach Felipe Contepomi urges continued improvement after Springboks winOpens in new window ]
“I like what [Contepomi] is trying to bring to Argentina; all the positivity, the winning mentality, and if we get a win with a bonus point at the weekend it would be great,” says Cordero, smiling.
Such is his desire to repay Connacht that Cordero asked Contepomi to be released so as to be available for Connacht’s opening URC games.
“My surgery was September 20th last year and I was getting fit and feeling well; the only thing I needed was some rugby time. So, that’s exactly what I said to him, that I needed some rugby with Connacht,” he says, before adding of this evening’s full home debut: “I can’t wait. It will be amazing.”
His desire has been heightened by last week’s 35-33 loss to Munster.
“A great game and a great performance by the boys, but not the best for me,” he laments, mindful of his yellow card when stopping Craig Casey head-on-head, although he was leaning back on impact.
“It was my first yellow card in my whole career. I was going with the best intentions to make that tackle but unfortunately it was head-to-head. Not the way I wanted to start the season with Connacht.
“I feel like I want to give a lot to Connacht. Maybe I was thinking too much, I don’t know. Personally, I was not very happy with my performance. I know I can do better.”
Cordero had arrived in Galway to embrace “a new challenge,” after not making the World Cup, only to suffer the worst injury of his career in his second training session.
[ Connacht’s Pete Wilkins allays concerns on Santiago Cordero injury ]
“At first, I didn’t want to believe it. I was waiting for the surgery, waking up every morning and looking at my knee [and thinking], ‘Okay, it’s still broken, it’s still true.’ I didn’t want to have the surgery. I think it’s maybe the worst injury you can have in rugby.
“Then I just accepted it. I’m not going to lie, I was a little bit afraid of the ‘after surgery’. But the eight months went fast. In the blink of your eyes, you’re playing again. It’s not the end of the world.”
Cordero also had his wife Bernadita and two young kids, Balthazar and Simon, to come home to every day.
“It wasn’t all about me. They needed another parent there so that helped me a lot. Also, everyone – players, staff, coaches – supported me from day zero no matter what. That was very good for me mentally.”
He and Bernadita are also very happy living in the west of Ireland.
“I love the ocean and my wife loves the ocean. The city is perfect. You have plenty of cafes and there’s always something going on. We’re very happy here.”
The son of a banker, also Santiago, and Carmen – his mother drove the local school runs in San Miguel Partido on the outskirts of Buenos Aires – Cordero has one older sister, Lucia, a younger sister Agostina, and a younger brother Facunda, who plays with Glasgow.
“We grew up in a nice quiet neighbourhood, with big houses and big gardens. We lived an hour away from the main city. I’m not a city guy. I like everything quiet.”
Like all his friends, Cordero initially played football but when playing rugby in school he found scoring tries easy and joined his local club Regatas when he was 12.
A year later Argentina reached the 2007 World Cup semi-finals, with Mario Ledesma, Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, Agustin Pichot, Contepomi, Juan Martín Hernández et al.
“That got me very, very deep. That’s when I wanted to be a rugby player.”
Identified and picked out for trials in Buenos Aires at 17, Cordero played 15 times over two seasons for the Argentina Under-20s, and was included in the Pumas’ European tour at the age of 18 in 2012. A year later he made his Test debut against England after 30 minutes at Twickenham when Juan Imhoff was injured.
“It was like living something unreal. But once you’re on the pitch you play like it’s any rugby game. In that rectangle you just do your thing.”
Cordero, at 21, scored three tries at the 2015 World Cup as Los Pumas again reached the semi-finals, beating Ireland in the quarter-finals when he set up two tries.
“It was a great World Cup. I was very young and I worked very hard to win a spot on the team.”
Most of the Pumas squad, including Cordero, joined the Jaguares ahead of the 2016 Super Rugby.
“I was living at home with my family and friends, and able to play professional rugby. Maybe in Europe you don’t appreciate that but it’s amazing what you have here. Whether you’re Irish, Welsh, Scottish or Italian, everyone has an opportunity to play and work in their country close to all your loved ones. If I want to do that, I can’t.”
The Jaguares were excluded from the 2021 Super Rugby Season and were soon disbanded, although by then Cordero had been signed as a medical joker by Exeter Chiefs in 2018.
“I made the decision to try something different because I think it was the right time for me personally. Exeter came with a medical joker offer on a Friday and on Monday I was going there.”
He played 30 times, scored 11 tries, and in his second season was on the five-man shortlist for the Rugby Players Association player of the season.
“I love the way they live and see rugby; everything was amazing there. I learned a lot.”
So why leave?
“I didn’t have much choice to be honest. They signed Stuart Hogg,” he recalls, chuckling. “Rob Baxter came to me and said: ‘Santi, we’d love to keep you but there’s not enough money so I don’t want to offer you anything because it would be disrespectful.’
“I said: ‘Thank you for being so honest. I’m going to look for something else’.”
Bordeaux/Begles were an up-and-coming club in 2019 and Cordero was attracted by that. He struggled initially with the language but had four good years in southwest France.
“Everything about Bordeaux was beautiful. I think my family and me got very, very lucky with our destinations in rugby. Being able to play in Argentina near home, then Exeter, then Bordeaux and now Galway with Connacht, all beautiful places to live and play. We’re very grateful.”
The one downside was the results-driven, sheer slog of the Top 14. He couldn’t give his best to Los Pumas and missed out on the 2019 and 2023 World Cups.
“I’m not complaining or angry about anything. It is what it is, and I always try to find the good in the bad.”
Again, Cordero needed a big change.
“There were a couple of French clubs interested. But then my manager came to me. ‘Connacht, Ireland, a new club, they just want to talk to you. I spoke with Peter [Wilkins] and connected in a way.
“I took a plane from Bordeaux to Galway and it was the only day that it snowed last year, in March maybe. When I arrived it was freezing and they were telling me ‘this never happens’. But I just liked Galway and I like the way they see rugby.
“They said to me: ‘Do you have any questions?’
“I said: ‘Yeah. Will I get better here? I just want to get better as a rugby player and a person.’
“And they said: ‘We focus on the process here, not the results’, which was a little different from the Top 14. It’s like what we are doing with Argentina.”
The global game’s wandering minstrels.
“Yeah, it’s crazy how we as human beings adapt. But I think I won’t be a coach in the future. It’s too stressing.”
Amid all the highlights, one stands out. “The one I will always remember is the year after Covid and the try I scored against Lyons in Bordeaux. If we won that game it would take us first in the Top 14. It was very personal and a very big win.”
Cordero uses his left hand in mimicking waves as he describes the up and down nature of his career but adds: “I don’t want to live in the past.”
He would like to extend his stay and finish his career in Connacht, with two goals in mind.
“Win a trophy. I know one is already there, but I would also love Connacht to be a team that everyone fears, that no one wants to play against. ‘Oh Connacht, here we go, we’re going to suffer.’ I want to feel that before I finish playing rugby. I want to leave Connacht as high as possible.”
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