Wallabies out to bust the bajada

If you want scapegoats for Australia losing their first ever Test against Argentina in 1979, and several more thereafter, start with Marcos and Alejandro Iachetti.

The two giant Argentinan locks, Marcos at 2.00m and 115kg and his brother Alejandro at 2.00m and 125kg, were the engine room of the scrum that put the skates under the Wallabies in Buenos Aires and paved the way for a stunning 24-13 win.

The Argentinian scrummaging was characterised by a devastating eight man shove – the ‘Bajada’ or ‘Bajadita,’ – a radically different scrum method invented in the late 1960s by the legendary Argentinian coach Francisco Ocampo.

The bajada involved players driving towards their hooker, rather than straight ahead – each man pushing to get the maximum power applied to the blunt point of the wedge, the shoulders of the hooker.

The architect of this weapon, Don Francisco ‘Catamarca’ Ocampo, was something of an obsessive. He knew that the Argentineans didn’t have the backline sophistication to take on the world powers, and their technical nous would always be overshadowed by the southern hemisphere giants and the home nations.

But what the Argentineans did have was big bodies with loads of strength. Their 1979 pack not only featured the Iachetti brothers at an average 120kg, but had four other players at over 100kg. This was in a time when many players trained for endurance over power, and it was not unusual for backrowers to weigh only 85-90kg.

Further, it was suggested that the Argentineans as a race were unnaturally strong through the hips, buttocks and thighs, perhaps a legacy of their proud history in the saddle.

Aside from their inbuilt scrum gene, there appeared to be an element of sheer belligerence in their makeup. Remember this was a people who invented pato – a horseback cross between basketball and polo. Pato was banned several times during its history because of the violence. Many gauchos were trampled underfoot, and many more lost their lives in knife fights started in the heat of the game.

Whatever the ingredient, Don Francisco picked up on it and developed it into the defining part of the Argentinean style of rugby, an aggressive and devastating scrum.

Argentine journalist Frankie Deges once said of the Don…”Francisco Ocampo became so obsessed with scrumming … that he devoted his entire life to it. He was a real freak who spent all his time studying the mechanics.” Former Springboks coach Ian McIntosh understood that Ocampo used engineering principles and even tried to copy them in his stint at Natal.

The South African respect for Argentine scrummaging was mirrored by the Argentines respect for the Springboks – legend says that Don Francisco ‘Catamarca’ Ocampo had been in awe of the 1932 Junior Springboks’ scrum domination. According to Deges “Ocampo dissected their scrum with engineering eyes, analysing vectors, forces, pressures and other aspects that were very different to the way people thought of the game at the time. He finally put everything to fruition in the late 1960s when coaching San Isidro Club. He died before enjoying the spoils of his ideas, but SIC went on to dominate the following two decades based on their great scrum.”

The Iachetti brothers were made for power scrumming, as were their front rowers, a certain E.E.Rodriguez (later to become a famous Wallaby, and author of “The Art Of Scrummaging”), and his compatriots Alejandro Cubelli, a 13-year, 21-Test hooker, and the then debutante prop Fernando Morel who subsequently played twice for the South American side and also in the 1987 World Cup over his 19 caps.

Morel also hailed from the spiritual home of the bajada, San Isidro, and returned to coach them after his playing days were over.

This devastating tight five – Morel, Cubelli, Rodriguez, Iachetti, Iachetti – crept up on, and mugged, a 1979 Wallaby pack that was not without form, having beaten the All Blacks in their most recent outing. But the power of the massive Argentinian scrum was new to the Australians and with two players making their debuts in the backs on tour, inexperience showed.

Argentina with their big men and iron focus, dominated the set piece, both scrum and lineout, and with the great Hugo Porta slotting three long-range field goals, the Wallabies’ fate was sealed.

Fast forward to 1983 at Ballymore and while the Australians may have had an inkling of what was to come, they were again ill-prepared to meet it. While Morel had moved on, his place was taken by the imposing Serafin Dengra, who with his curly blonde locks and wrestlers physique, looked as though he had just stepped out of the WWF.

Dengra, along with Rodriguez and hooker Andres Courreges, packed low to the turf and drove through the Australians for two pushover tries from close range, the ultimate humiliation for any forward pack.

After the 18-3 scoreline, Wallaby coach Bob Dwyer dropped Declan Curran, moved Stan Pilecki to the other side of the scrum and brought in John ‘Pastures’ Meadows, one of Australia’s great post-war scrummagers. Meadows held his own against the power scrum tactics in the second Test well enough that the Wallabies backs rediscovered space out wide and scored several tries, including a double to Brendan Moon and a controversial penalty try, when the ball was knocked down by a defender some 25 metres from the tryline.

After the earlier defeat, 29-13 was good enough, although the Aussies had learned a lesson they were unlikely to forget in a hurry – that the Argentine team bore careful watching, especially on home turf.

The stats tell the story, that Argentina is a hostile place for Australian touring sides.

Playing in Australia, the Wallabies have faced Los Pumas 12 times, and won 11, losing only the 1983 Brisbane Test.

In Argentina though, the record make far less comfortable reading: ten matches this time, for five wins and a draw. Argentina have beaten the Wallabies four times at home including a two-tries-each win over a dispirited and tired Wallaby team in 2014.

So where does the bajada fit into all this? Well it has become clear that with the latest tweaks to the scrum laws, scrummaging is fashionable once again. No longer are teams whipping the ball out and away from quick feeds and channels to avoid the contest. Instead, they are going head to head for what seems like minutes, the ball left sitting in the tunnel while the two packs strain desperately to get an advantage.

It seems obvious that this tactic will grow in stature in the Rugby World Cup, and the the Rugby Championship is a testing ground for the de rigeur powerscrum tactic. Watching the All Blacks and Argentina last weekend added fuel to the fire – plenty of scrums were contested for much longer than normal – up to 20 seconds in some cases, according to All Blacks hooker Keven Mealamu.

It couldn’t be better for the Wallabies. There will be no place to hide in London in September, so they might as well find out what sort of heat they’re packing now. The purest form of bajada might be outlawed these days, but the Argentine pride in creating an 8-man locomotive at scrum time remains. If there is a weakness in the Aussie scrum, Los Pumas will find it.

On the flipside, if Australia’s forwards can work hard and dominate, they will be able to thank Argentina for the lesson, and for no longer having to take a knife to the Rugby World Cup gunfight.