A history of the Pumas. Goodbye to “Bobe” Cazenave: those new boots and what it meant to be part of the ’65 team

There was one day left before the debut on the legendary tour of South Africa in 1965, which meant the baptism of the Pumas. The Argentine national team players were preparing to train at the Police Grounds in Salisbury, the scene of the match against Rhodesia. Roberto Cazenavefullback and kicker of the team, entered the playing field wearing brand new cleats Even if you take it out. Upon seeing him, one of the coaches, Ángel “Papuchi” Guastella, lost his gift of serenity for a few moments: “Didn’t you bring other boots?!” He challenged him. Cazenave was sincere: “I didn’t have a handle and before traveling I bought the cheapest ones available.” Without wasting a minute, Guastella took him around the city in search of loot: they bought some Adidas, which in Argentina were a luxury. Here, at that time, they used Fulvence or the Contiwhich were manufactured in Rosario.

On the day of the test, Bobe Cazenave couldn’t even step with those boots that squeezed his feet from all sides. He didn’t complain, but he missed almost all of his shots into the woods, many of them feasible. Although they scored four tries against their rival’s one, the Argentines lost that debut match 17-12. “If I had scored one penalty out of so many that I had and all the conversions, we would have won. The next day all the newspapers said that the Argentines had lost because of the kicker,” Cazenave smiled when he remembered that episode.

The formation of Los Pumas from the 1965 team that triumphed in South Africa.

At the end of the tour, with his South African Adidas boots already fitted, the fullback was, after Eduardo Poggi, the team’s scorer (43 goals) and the only one to complete the four score boxes: 2 tries, 4 penalties, 11 conversions and a drop. He played 11 of the 16 games and was the 15th in the match that marked the history of Argentine rugby: that of June 19, 1965, when the original Pumas beat the Junior Springboks 11-6, at the old Ellis Park. from Johannesburg.

Roberto Eduardo Cazenave left on Sunday. He was born on May 8, 1941. He was a ductile and elegant back, with good skills, confident in the balls to be loaded and with a long and precise kick. His skills as a player led him to occupy three different positions during his time with the Argentine national team: he was fullback, flyhalf and wing.. He played six international matches for the Pumas, the last in the second of the series with Gazelles, in GEBA, in 1966. In 1970 he became champion with his club, SIC, in which he was also, in some way, one of the originals , because he participated in the group that opened the doors as a coach-trainer to Francisco “Catamarca” Ocampo, thus beginning a golden era in the SIC. Upon returning from the 1965 tour with the national team, he graduated as an engineer. In 1962 he was invited by CASI to be part of the team that made the first tour of Europe. There he forged a friendship that continued in the national team and later in time with Manolo Beccar Varela. They always arrived together at the lunch that the members of that team celebrate every year.

A meeting of the historicals. Above, from left to right: Jorge Dartiguelongue, Roberto Cazenave, Augustin Silveyra, Enrico Neri, Eduardo Spain, Manuel Beccar Varela, Ricardo Handley, Hector Mendez, Carlos Contepomi. Below: Nicanor Gonzalez of the Solar, Adolph Etchegaray, Juan Benzi, William Illia, Luis GradinKindness

If Guastella lost his gift of serenity that time for a moment, Bobe (a nickname with which his brothers immortalized him when he signed “Boberto” on a piece of paper) never lost his gift of kindness. He is always smiling, in a good mood, affable, talkative and treats anyone well as if he had known them all his life. As one of his teammates from the ’65 Pumas pointed out, he was never heard to speak ill of anyone. When I interviewed him in one of the SIC rooms for a book (“The Roar”) that tried to portray that founding tour, at one point he told of his annoyance because upon returning from South Africa he felt that that team was belittled and even criticized by a part of the team. domestic rugby. But when that annoyance he noticed was increasing, he quickly changed the axis and made it clear how grateful he was to have been part of that epic.

Cazenave and Guilermo Illia, another of the ’65 Pumas, were born on the same day. They called themselves “twins.” Illia, “The Leader”, left on January 20, 33 days before his “twin”, a friend and teammate of the original Pumas.

Jorge Búsico

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A look at rugbyMourning in rugby

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