Nov 12,2024
Ireland's Hugo Keenan credits Argentina boss Felipe Contepomi with playing a huge part in his development as a younger player.
The 28-year-old in now an established international with 40 caps to his name and is regarded as one of the best full-backs in the business.
Contepomi, whose Pumas side visit Dublin on Friday night for their second Autumn Nations Series game, was backs coach with Leinster when Keenan had his breakthrough season in 2018/19.
"Felipe was brilliant for me in Leinster, with my development," said Keenan of the former out-half, who left the province in 2022 to become an assistant with his native country.
"I give him a huge amount of credit for my development, he was exactly the type of coach I needed at that stage of my career.
"I remember sitting down after every game with him, going through my clips and looking at what I could have done better with him.
"He was brilliant for Leinster, he's a hugely popular character as well so it will be good to see him next week.
"But as the coach of an international side, we can't have too much contact with him, but it will be good to catch up."
Contepomi took over as head coach from Michael Cheika after the World Cup and recorded wins over New Zealand, South Africa and Australia in his first Rugby Championship, while they handed Italy a 50-18 trouncing in Udine on Saturday.
"He's obviously done a great job for Argentina and I'm not surprised at all," said Keenan following his side’s disappointing 23-13 defeat to New Zealand on Friday.
"He's got a lot of insider knowledge on Irish rugby, so I'm sure he'll be trying to use that.
"It's exciting, another brilliant Test to come and another side story to it.
"Hopefully another sold out, packed Aviva on an exciting Friday night - we can't be too down on ourselves, we have to pick ourselves up and keep going.
"They're high in confidence after beating each of the southern hemisphere sides in the Rugby Championship so they're going to be hungry, coming with a lot of belief and we're going to have to turn the page quick and start focusing on them and not feel sorry for ourselves.
"But there's going to be a full focus on making sure we do get that performance because I don't think we were too far off, it's about fixing the accuracy and discipline and I'm sure the coaches have a lot more for us as well leading into this week."
Keenan was one of Ireland’s better performers in a flat showing against the All Blacks, making a couple of try-saving tackles but having little opportunity to attack.
"I thought our preparation over the last 12 days was actually really good, lads have been working hard and we've been getting over our detail, and we were feeling confident," said the Dubliner.
"The belief was there going into the week and we were definitely not lacking motivation, so it's hard to put your finger on it but inaccuracy on the basics and our discipline are two obvious ones that let us down.
"And yeah, they're a top class side, they were the better side on the day, they deserved their win but we can't be feeling sorry for ourselves."
