With a potential match-up against Richie McCaw in the offing when Argentina open their RWC 2015 campaign against the All Blacks at Wembley Stadium on 20 September, Los Pumas flanker Pablo Matera cannot help but think how far his career has come in a relatively short space of time.
Just three years ago he was helping Argentina to a fourth-place finish at the World Rugby U20 Championship in South Africa, and the soon-to-be 22-year-old – his birthday is a week on Saturday – now has his sights set on reaching another semi-final, at RWC 2015.
Matera freely admits that his early taste of international rugby with Los Pumitas at the 2012 U20 Championship has served him well as he contemplates making his Rugby World Cup debut.
“That was the first experience I'd had of playing games on an international level and against other selected players who were also playing in their first international experience. And to be truthfully honest, at the time, those were the hardest games I’d played so far and therefore it was a very important for me as a rugby player,” Matera told World Rugby TV.
Matera has gone on to win 14 caps for the senior side playing against some of his boyhood heroes. While not quite the starry-eyed youngster he once was when first breaking onto the test stage in 2013, Matera does admit rubbing shoulders with the game’s elite still takes some getting used to.
“I was used to watching those players on TV, and playing as them on my PlayStation!” said Matera, recalling his Rugby Championship debut. “To play against players such as Richie McCaw was great. I was incredibly excited; I couldn’t take my eyes off them for a long time. I still couldn’t believe I was there and they were my opposition. It was a beautiful moment.”
Just as Matera has adjusted to life at a higher level so too have Los Pumas. By ending their winless run in The Rugby Championship at the 18th time of asking last October with victory against Australia, Argentina have the confidence that they can match the very best on the big stage.
"I think we’ll finish as one of the four best teams at the tournament"
“We are preparing very well, and I think we’ll finish as one of the four best teams at the tournament,” Matera boldly predicts. “Obviously, what a team has in mind is the desire to be the champion and I feel if one does not think that, it’s then impossible to achieve it. In any case, the goal is to be among the semi-finals. I think we can achieve that, and that is what we are preparing for.
“Playing at the World Cup is something I think about every day,” he adds. “The truth is, I picture it daily, being there. I know it is the dream of every professional rugby player, so I’m going to do everything I can to be there.”
