For a man now retired from the Game, Agustin Pichot enjoyed a busy and highly significant rugby month in June.
On 16 June, Pichot formed part of the IRB’s small team that stood before the IOC’s Executive Board to put forward rugby Sevens’ case for a place in the 2016 Olympic Games.
A bronze medalist at the third Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament in 2001, Pichot joined Kenya captain Humphrey Kayange, Wallaroos captain and recent World Cup Sevens winner Cheryl Soon and Kazakhstan Sevens captain Anastassiya Khamova in reinforcing the support of players for the campaign.
“I have spoken with many of my fellow top players and each one agrees that competing at the Olympic Games would be an amazing experience,” said Pichot. “We would all be there and would be proud to call ourselves Olympians”.
The show of support and responsibility in Switzerland was all the more
poignant for the former Pumas captain, given that he was also preparing
for one final game of Rugby to mark his retirement, in Buenos Aires.
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Let it be said that Pichot could have had his pick of stadia anywhere in Argentina, South America and possibly even the world for his last hurrah. Many of the sport’s biggest names would have turned out to honour his achievements, and earn him one last lucrative send-off, and yet instead Pichot chose for the game to be played at his boyhood club, CASI: the game would be a celebration of a lifetime in the game and the friendships he had made, first as an amateur in Argentina and then playing professionally in Europe.
“I feel that rugby gave me lots of things and I also always gave what I could on the pitch, basically, and I think what we do on the pitch impacts on us,” said Pichot.
“I always gave 100 percent on the pitch in my heart and in my head and recently I began to feel that I just couldn't do that anymore. So now is the right time to say goodbye.”
Pichot is a hugely important figure in Argentine Rugby, arguably the most influential, and the third place finish in France was largely down to his leadership, both on and off the pitch. The day provided a platform for many to pay tribute.
"I think he helped change the history of Argentine rugby, and is still doing so,” said former test colleague Mauricio Reggiardo. “He did so much for the Pumas on the pitch as a player, but since he stopped playing he has done just as much - if not more - for the team."
Ledesma: "Most influential figure in the history of Argentinian rugby
"He's a complete pain in the neck off the pitch even more than on it,” said hooker and close friend Mario Ledesma. “Very generous, a guy with values and convictions that he would defend to the death. Someone for whom there is no grey - everything is black or white. If he loves you, he loves you to death, and if he doesn't love you - well he really doesn't!
"You can debate all you like, but it's very difficult to decide if Agustin was the best player of all time for the Pumas, as it's so hard to compare different eras. But off the pitch, I think he has been the most influential figure in the history of Argentinian rugby.”
The day also offered a reunion for ‘Pichot’s generation’ of Pumas and, inevitably, it was charged with emotion. Former coach Marcelo Loffreda made sure of it when he spoke about Pichot’s father, Enrique, who had been a major influence on Agustin's career before dying of cancer 10 years ago.
"Before a match, a really important match, I once told you that your father was there, playing alongside you,” said Loffreda. “Today, he's playing too.”
Seventy scrum halves
In honour of the occasion, the game featured no fewer than 70 players - all wearing Pichot’s number ‘9’ shirt. Old friends tackled recent Pumas, brothers passed to nephews, even the referee was an uncle.
At the final whistle, Pichot stepped away from the pitch, but not from the game, indeed he remains a central figure in Argentine and world Rugby.
“I hope people will remember me as someone who was always the same person, in good times and in bad, and hopefully my friends will miss me - at least the guys who played with me and who I could help out with things in some way,” he said.
“I'm sure some will forget about me pretty quickly, but hopefully people will think of me as someone who gave one hundred percent to rugby, and who never let the sport down.”
