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In Tolkien’s mythical land of Gondor, the beacons were two series of permanently manned stations maintained by the lord of Minas Tirith for raising the alarm in northern and southern Gondor respectively.
When Bernard Foley kicked the winning goal against Scotland, all hope was lost in the north. The beacons were lit as an acknowledgement of the need for outside help.
Ironically, the best chance of aid comes from a nation whose players are currently mainly based up north. That is about to change and the north could do well to look at them and their recent evolution in order for hope to be restored.
It could be argued that Argentina made the 2007 Rugby World Cup semi final based on a game plan forged in the shadows of the Mount Doom European club rugby scene.
A solid set piece, abrasive defence and an ability to punish mistakes through the boot. Argentina made easy work of Ireland, Georgia and Namibia but ground out an all-important 17-12 win against France to avoid New Zealand in the quarter-finals.
There was a try apiece against Scotland in the quarter final but Contepomi kicked three out his four kicks and Dan Parks only one from two. However, the eventual champions proved too much and Argentina succumbed to the power of South Africa in the semis.
They proved more adventurous in the bronze medal game against France but doing well in that game is like beating your child in a running race. However big the margin, bragging about victory is not an option if you want to keep your dignity intact.
That said, you could argue that Argentina’s third placing paved the way for their inclusion in the Rugby Championship and, as of next year, the Super Rugby tournament.
They did not find the going easy in the Rugby Championship, with a draw at home against South Africa the best they could muster initially. Yet you could sense that they were growing their game and trying to add strings to their attacking bow.
Then they claimed victory against Australia at home and secured an emphatic away victory in South Africa. Moreover, they did so not through the scrum and the penalty but by taking the game to their opponents and scoring tries.
For years, northern scribes had turned up their noses at the rugby played down south. Aerial ping-pong, basketball rugby, powder-puff defence, weak set-piece to name a few. Of course, the southern scribes in turn described the rugby fare up north as paltry, scarce, one-dimensional and cooked up by village idiots.
Like stereotypes, there was a certain truth to what they were saying. When the game is played at pace, gaps open up. Teams like the Wallabies have struggled at scrum time and New Zealand had lineout issues for quite a few years at the dawn of the professional era.
Results in the Rugby World Cup – like France’s victory in 2007 against New Zealand or Ireland’s victory against Australia in 2011 – helped buy into the view that the north could compete with the south when the same amount of preparation was afforded each team.
Personally, I feel there is great merit in thinking the knockout tournaments like the Heineken Cup prepares those teams well for the cut-throat nature of World Cup rugby. An emphasis on the set-piece is hardly a bad thing when you see how Australia’s fortunes have improved with their relatively new-found solidity in this area.
The problem is when trying to disprove a theory, people take up a polar view. Accusations fly back and forth that the north is home to dour, attritional rugby and that the south places too much of an emphasis on helter-skelter rugby because they lack set-piece substance.
This is patently absurd in that South Africa has always had a solid set-piece and Argentina would take a scrum challenge over anyone and aim to come out on top. Similarly, the last day of the Six Nations this year saw end-to-end running rugby in a frenzied desire to secure bonus points and healthy point differentials.
The fact that the World Cup is now effectively an extended fourth round of the Rugby Championship has already caused some northern scribes to focus on skills rather than power.
The offload is seen as the king of continuity, the ability to do things at pace an essential requisite.
Implied in this assessment is that the north must throw out everything that they know and take up everything that is considered the domain of the south.
It is advisable to take a more measured approach. Every team has teething problems. South Africa are struggling to adapt their traditional game to a more varied one, Australia looked to have lost impact at the breakdown in their game against Scotland, New Zealand’s scrum and fringe defence looked shaky in the pool games.
Argentina are a shining example, though, of how a team can retain its traditional strengths and improve in areas where they have not done so well.
They blew away the Six Nations champions with two devastating spells in the first and closing quarter. Nicolas Sanchez may have scored five penalties but it was the pace and guile of the likes of Matias Moroni, Juan Imhoff and Santiago Cordero that undid Ireland with four tries.
If the Irish were expecting Argentina to squeeze the life out of their opponents with injuries to key personnel, they were quickly mistaken. The Argentines played with width and with great endeavour. And they operated at pace.
They approach their semi final against Australia in a much better position than their semi final against South Africa in 2007. I would argue that Argentina were similar then to Wales in this tournament. Valiant, solid but ultimately lacking in adaptation.
Ireland clawed its way back from a twenty-point deficit to just three points. Ireland were gaining momentum and things looked shaky for Argentina. How did they respond? By reverting to type? No, they regained their composure and went on the attack and took the game away from the Irish.
To me this World Cup has not been a war of hemispheres. It has never been that way. South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina and Australia have about as much in common as oranges, pineapples, bananas and watermelons.
They may all be examples of fruit and, therefore, found in the same area of the supermarket. But that’s where their similarities end.
The World Cup has always been about negating your opponent’s strengths and making the most of your own. However, given your opponent is doing the very same thing, it’s important to be able to ride out periods of being dominated and adapt your game accordingly.
Scotland surprised because they turned up with an ability to overcome adversity by creating their own. In contrast, Wales and France played valiantly but lacked an ability to go beyond the norm and rely on something the opposition weren’t expecting. Ireland played an effective but limited game.
South Africa are struggling thus far for that very reason and New Zealand until France were having gearbox issues and couldn’t accelerate into clean air.
Argentina are a shining example to those disappointed teams in the North that there is no need for panic. Everything that they have learned thus far is not wrong. A drastic change in thinking is not required. A more rounded approach is all that’s needed and an ability to know when to hold off and when to pounce.
The professional era has seen vast improvements in defences. We have seen that with the lower margins of victory across the board in this World Cup. What has changed is that to unlock those effective defences, you need a bag of tricks to fool your opponent. Trying to pull off the same illusion of magical power gets quickly found out.
Argentina is an example to all teams under the World Rugby banner that variety is the spice of life. By playing a positive, rounded brand of rugby Argentina are giving themselves every possibility of progressing even further. They are beacons of hope to all.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.