Rivals in club, but friends in the city and teammates in selection ... The half scrum of Mont-de-Marsan Agustin Ormaechea and the opener of Dax Felipe Berchesi live in Japan their second World with Uruguay. Together, as usual, but this time with a magnificent success against Fiji, the first of Uruguay in World Cup since 2003.
For 28 years, they are almost inseparable: born a month apart, Ormaechea and Berchesi grew up in the same district of Montevideo, attending the same school and the same rugby club, the prestigious Carrasco Polo, climbing the ladder in selection young people and 7 ... until ending up in the Landes, a small forty kilometers from each other.
"He's my lifelong friend: he lived in front of my house, we've been neighbors since we were 2-3 years old, we spent our whole lives together," explains Ormaechea, who came in late in the match. . "We're like brothers, we see each other almost every week, even at the other end of the world, we stay very close," says Berchesi, scorer of the selection.
Outside the field, the two men never leave each other. Now both settled in the south of France, when the team of one has no match, he will see the other play. And vice versa. They also regularly share "asados", these famous grills that South Americans love, a mate or a walk by the sea.
And this complicity can only be an advantage for the "Teros", who dispute in Japan the fourth World in their history. "I know when he will pass the ball, when he will keep it ... We know each other by heart," says Berchesi, the best director of his country.
"We play 9 and 10, it helps a lot, this connection, I know what he wants, what he needs, sometimes just a look or a gesture and we know," adds Ormaechea .
A family matter
And too bad if both players play in clubs whose local rivalry is well anchored in them. Ormaechea and Berchesi have clashed several times and "it was very very weird", in the opinion of the youngest. "I'm used to playing with him, it's really special," recalls Dacquois.
"It was like training, it's the only time we find each other in front of each other, before the game I get a room: 'If I blink, you leave me pass, huh? ' But that's out of the question! "He smiles.
In Japan, the two men are moving again on the same side. This may allow Ormaechea to avoid a new red card, like the one collected against Fiji in 2015.
"We both have a strong character, I only listen to him, I manage to manage him a bit ... We can not afford to lose a player like him," Berchesi assures. "It's important to know each other, we know how we will react to each other, we know how we can talk to each other, what we can say."
Because rugby in Uruguay is a family story: Ormaechea, whose brother Juan Diego is also in Japan, is the son of the legend Diego, who participated in 1999 at the first World Cup of Uruguay before becoming a time the coach. Twenty years later, these stories of friends and family led Uruguay to the most resounding success in World Cup history.
With AFP