Emiliano Boffelli and his role in Los Pumas: how he refined his technique to be infallible with the foot

When Emiliano Boffelli they took it for the first time to goblin, a tiny rosary club compared to the others in the city – “we are few, but all fans”, he remarks – he was three years old. He grew up watching his brothers play rugby. “Everything I know, I learned by watching,” he admits. The only thing he took his eyes off her for was Newell’s. Just like now, from Edinburgh, where he plays Edinburgh Rugby-, try to see or find out the results. He came there from France, from Stroke 92 and completed a season that WorldRugby summarized with a post on social media with his most representative action: football.

That in your first year in a club you are the footballer is important. That in your first year in a club they choose you as the best of the month, it is also. But that in your first year in a club your teammates choose you as the best player, THAT’S A LOT. “, says the post and paints her gift perfectly. In the era of Michele Sheikain The Cougarsthe kicks They look good on you. Although his right hands from a distance did not make those of Marcelo Bosch -one of his youth references, in fact-, in the last tests he kicked (and scored) from all sides. The historic victory in New Zeland before All blackcan be summed up in his football.

When the Los Pumas goals have been reviewed, he will be there as a synthesis of the first victory in New Zealand. That day, it will be said, that 23 of the 25 points in his selection belonged to him. Relentless with the foot. There is a visual sequence describing that match. The ball upright on the tee aimed at the sticks. Boffelli in a trance without taking his eyes off the target. The body is prepared, the distance is already calculated. He visualizes the back of the icing and looks at the sticks. He gets distracted and doesn’t listen to the silence of the stadium. He reaches out an arm. The look, penetrating. He calculates, confirms what he has studied and at the right moment begins the race that is impossible to stop. It’s like a ritual or maybe it’s a cabal.

-It seems like an intimate moment, what do you feel there?

-The most important thing is to think about the football process, not so much about the result. All I do and try to look at the ball and sticks, as most kickers do, is to focus on the goal of putting the ball between the sticks. All of this helps me focus and abstract myself from the moment, the people and the stadium. Sometimes there are 80,000 people watching everything. I need to abstract myself and focus on the ball-stick relationship. It is not for anything else, it is a routine. I always try to repeat it so that the ball enters the sticks.

-Do you think that after that game Cheika understands that football is yours?

-No, listen, I think nobody here owns anything. If the team thinks I’m the one for football, if they need me to kick, obviously I’ll take that responsibility because I like it and to be able to help the team score on that side. Obviously, when they give it to me, I feel like an owner in that moment. I have an engagement, but I don’t think I have anything. The role makes me happy, I know what it entails and the responsibility and commitment that comes with kicking sticks.

-How did you manage to change your attitude compared to the previous period with Mario Ledesma as coach?

– We really want to see each other. This group enjoys the meeting and the preparation of the game. We play a lot in Argentina and it’s great. What we wanted and needed. Sometimes we don’t want it to end. Cheika’s arrival was positive in the sense that we already knew each other. He too for us. He really wants to know our culture, to speak the language. He knows where he is and is organizing stages with a final goal, which is next year’s World Cup.

-And so they reached 18-25 in New Zealand … Was there a time when you felt like you were making history?

-The victory was very much enjoyed, but during the match it is difficult to have that moment, to slow down and say ‘well, well, we are reaching it’, you have to be focused for the 80 minutes. Or so we try. It’s like it doesn’t stop and you don’t fall. Fall when it ends, if you fall. Obviously in the game, when the defense is as good as it was, the legs of the table are still in different aspects of the game and once they could keep attacking and they wouldn’t catch us. I had an idea, but I think it never crossed my mind that we were making it.

-What do you think the stage is Independiente and not Vélez?

-I think it should be played at Newell’s, it would be spectacular, a dream.