2024-04-11 15:45:13
Like every club, Huirapuca has its own gallery of illustrious people. Some reach such a high level of identification with colors that a kind of antonomasia operates. This is how it works with the Molinuevo, the Núñez Piossek, the Dande, the Belloto…and also with Alejandro Carrier. Naming the historic pillar is the same as saying Huirapuca. And how could we not do it, if he appeared in the summaries of the First Division matches of the Tucumán Annual for a chilling number of 32 years. Yes, thirty-two, as if to rule out the possibility of a typo. A time window so wide that it allowed Alejandro to break records and share training with up to three generations of players and garner a legion of friends and history. For this reason, from the start this interview renounced the possibility of covering such a career in detail – because it would require a Netflix-style documentary, with several hours of footage – and limited itself to going through his present in a hand-to-hand talk alongside court 1 of the “huira” with some color flashbacks, which serve to illustrate – or remember – who the popularly known as “Toro Moto” was on and off the court. Incidentally, the nickname had a slightly different origin than what is normally attributed to it and which results from the combination between the strength of a bull and the speed of a motorcycle, like the one on which Concepción travels and which has brought him to the Young Argentina Park.
– First of all: how are you?
– How you see me: impeccable. Ha ha, I’m fine. I am a healthy person, I don’t like alcohol or cigarettes. I never liked any of that. My only weakness was the food. But now not even that. When you get older you start to handle things better.
– What was your biggest temptation in that sense?
– It was always the barbecue. It happens that I don’t like roast just like that, but rather complete, with a good chorizo, a good skirt…
– Always in the club?
– Anywhere. But the one that fascinates me the most is the barbecue you make with the grill on the sidewalk. In my house I have the grill in the back, so we do that at some friends’ houses on Saturdays, before coming to the club. We do it with some friends, like José María (Núñez Piossek) or “Injerto” (Eduardo) Leguizamón. We met at his house and then we came to the club to watch his son play.
– Do people recognize you a lot when you ride a motorcycle around the city?
– Yes, we all know each other here. Most people know me from rugby, which opens doors for you everywhere. I would tell you that I have more friends outside the club than inside. For example, the people of Buenos Aires always liked me. I have many friends in Buenos Aires, several from Los Pumas. Although I did not play for Los Pumas, I did play for Provincias Argentinas, and that is why I became friends with Serafín Dengra, Fernández Miranda, and Leguizamón, people who respected me as a player and as a person. Because on the field you hit everything, but the game ends. I was lucky to have had a 32-year career in the First Division, but even if I had played one or two, what you are left with in the end are the friends you make on all the fields. My sister is an engineer, my brother is an architect, but I didn’t study anything. My old man introduced me: this is the one who plays rugby. But I don’t know if I would have been good people if it hadn’t been for rugby. This club gave me support, it made me be a man. I don’t know, maybe without rugby I would have ended up being a criminal. If he lived on the street.
– How many years have you been in Huirapuca?
– More than 50. I started at 7, the first children’s division of the club was mine. At that time we were playing somewhere else, we didn’t have a field. I went through all the states of this club.
– You debuted in First Division when you were a youth.
– Yes, at 15 years old. He played in the Fourth, and played four games per weekend, because sometimes it was necessary to complete the First and Intermediate squad. I will have been playing like this for a whole year. I held on because I wanted to play. And that was difficult: we ate routs every weekend. It was hard as a 15-year-old boy to go through all that. And on top of that, there was always someone who made fun of you at school or on the street, they attacked you saying that you were bad. There was a sector of society that looked badly at rugby and Huirapuca. They said that those who had money played, and that is a lie. There was a rivalry with the “Cuervos” (Concepción FC) and other sports clubs. Luckily, later Huirapuca made a leap in the sporting part, and today it is a club that has many championships and brought many players into Los Pumas.
– You started as a fullback, in the back of the field, and ended up as a left prop, on the front line.
– Yes, at first I was a fullback. He had a good physical build and a lot of speed. I remember my debut in the Tucumán M19 team, in a match that was already over. With five minutes left, the coach, (Luis) ‘Cacho’ Castillo, calls a player to replace Juan Soler, who played fullback and took the balls down with one hand, but the guy did not want to come in to play for only five minutes. There I jumped up and told him to put me in, that I wanted to play. It wasn’t exactly the first option, because he came from Huirapuca, but he made me come in, although in the end he passed it on to Soler as a winger and put me at fullback. They kicked four balls at me and I picked them up with one hand too. And from there I was the starting fullback and Juan Soler was the winger, who later went on to play in that position in Lawn Tennis.
-But what was that transition from 15 to 1 like?
– Actually, I played in several positions. I was also a center and wing forward. But in ’85 Floreal García came to Huirapuca and he found that we did not have pillars with good physique. We played well on the outside, but inside we were weak. And he sees me, who had a good physique and weighed 90 kilos, and he tells me: Look, we don’t have a forward pack that can compete and endure the scrum, and if we don’t have that, we don’t have anything.. It happens that before the scrum was something else, it was all much wilder than it is now. Honestly, I don’t know how I don’t have a hernia today.
– And despite the change in position, that year you ended up being the Annual tryman alongside Gabriel Terán, with 14 tries.
– That’s how it is. Anyway, I didn’t last long in that position, I didn’t feel comfortable, so I ended up moving from right prop. I had one virtue: I scored tries in almost every game. I have a fairly high percentage of effectiveness, as a fullback, as a center, as a wing and as a prop. There are games in which I scored three, four or even five tries. I once played in Intermedia against Corsarios and scored five tries in the first half. And then they put me in the second half in First Division, we were losing, and I scored four more tries. I mean, I scored nine tries that afternoon. And there you have the statistics. There is a tournament in which I scored 26 tries in 28 games, and I was a pillar. And as a fullback he was unstoppable, he had a lot of speed. Look, Gabriel Terán was a plane, he was very fast, and I managed to cross him a couple of times. Of course, if you let it pick up speed, forget it. You looked at the number.
– Do you feel that rugby has changed a lot since then?
– Quite. It’s not as physical as when I played. They were battles. You were going to carry him to the fullback and he would wait for you with the iron. And it was worth it. If you got into a penalty, you got caught and your nose was broken. And it was worth it. I left the prison if you don’t want to get paid. Additionally, all defenses and attacks are pre-established. There are almost no different players anymore, dirty faces. They don’t go off the script. On the contrary, when I trained, I gave the ball to the player and told him to have fun. Let him do what he knew how to do. What interests me is that you do the try, then we’ll see what else. I need the player’s creativity.
-And about the scrum, what do you think?
– That it should be given more importance, because it is a terrible weapon of attack and defense. Why did South Africa beat the All Blacks in the world final? For the scrum. They took you back. A scrum is better than a good tackle, because you’re messing with eight people.
– Did you like Los Pumas in the World Cup?
– The only one they played well was against Wales. I don’t know, there are things that don’t close to me. At least, the way I see the game. And I clarify that I look at it with an open perspective, because I make mistakes just like everyone else. But…how are you going to put a guy who is not a flyhalf at opening in a World Cup? (To Santiago Carreras) put him at fullback, not at opening, you’re burning him out. You can’t invent in this game. The only ones who invent are the All Blacks. For example, (Damian) McKenzie was made a flyhalf when he was actually a winger, but he had a process. They trained him before in that position. What the All Blacks head coach orders is followed by all the coaches below, whether they agree or not. And here we leave Nicolás Sánchez out. I think they want to revolutionize, but instead of revolution, I see involution.
– Are you worried about the migration phenomenon?
-There are many boys that we have trained, formed, almost raised, we have made them players, and they left before they managed to wear the club’s shirt in First Division. And there are plenty of other guys who probably won’t. If they are not going to play abroad, they will go to the franchises. We have that problem.
– Do you not agree with professional rugby?
– Completely. For me, everything is a lie. Yes, in some places they earn better, but they also have to spend more than here. And most of the boys who leave come back with one hand behind and one hand forward. Rugby doesn’t give you money, except for those who have already been at the first level for a long time. Others return with two pesos and fifty. Yes, I’m not saying that there isn’t an experience as well, but one thing is if you go to play in a first level division, where in addition to winning money you will improve as a player, and another thing is if you go to a first or second division. flattened, like Portugal. I don’t know, I wouldn’t leave.
– Did you ever have the chance to leave?
– Yes. In ’87 I traveled to Chile with other Argentine players, among them “Pollo” Fernández and “Colorado” Miceli, to reinforce the Chilean team, which had to play a match against the South Africans. They weren’t allowed to enter here because of apartheid. And when I played against them, they suggested that I become a South African national. The legs They wanted to take me, but I didn’t want to. For me, professional rugby doesn’t exist. For me, it is important that I buy my clothes, prepare my bag the day before and not sleep thinking that I have to play the next day. I did this because I like it, not for money. If I had played for money, with the temperament I had, maybe I would go crazy.
– In what sense?
– I’ll tell you an anecdote: I once played against Uruguay in the junior team, and at one point in the game, a Uruguayan punched me and broke my eyebrow. The referee awarded a penalty and they sewed my eyebrow, but I was left in the dark. And in the third period I was hanging around the guy. And at one point I motioned for us to exchange ties. He accepted, but I told him why not exchange it outside. And when he tried to take it off, I headbutted him and left him down. Imagine, if I took it that way as an amateur, if I had been a professional he would end up killing someone, I don’t know.
– Do you remember what was the strangest thing that happened to you on a court?
-Having played for so many years, many happened to me. But what comes to mind now is that I had a teammate, Marcelino, with whom we had a personal competition: we bet to see who could score the most tries. As we were playing for money, sometimes he himself tried to stop me from scoring tries. For example, he wanted to tear off the maul and it would hang on my shirt. Once he put his foot on me when he was running towards the goal, and I went face-first to the ground. I had to get rid of him several times. And I also remember the time I saved a referee’s life.
– To whom and how was it?
– To “Pibe” (Manuel) Daneri. It was in a match against Lince. We were five meters from the ingoal, I wanted to go out playing quickly, but he crossed in front of me, I collided with him, he fell in front of me and I tripped and fell on top of him. And immediately afterward, he threw half of Lince’s team on me. Daneri was suffocating, but how strong was the strength I had at that time when I managed to get the whistle out of him, I whistled three times and everyone got up. When “Pibe” was able to get up and recover, I thought he was going to expel me, but no; He hugged me and said: Thank you, you saved my life, you crazy man… Then he told it everywhere. And every time I went to Los Tarcos, he would greet me and introduce me to his family. He said that he continued to live thanks to what he had done.
– Did you earn the nickname “Toro Moto” in Primera?
– No, it’s been going on since I was a kid. My old man had a Gilera motorcycle, which at that time was like having a Harley Davidson. I always rode with my old man on that motorcycle, and then I had my own. And so it was that “Moto” was added to the original nickname, which was “Toro”. Later, when I got bigger and gained speed, they said I was strong like a bull and fast like a motorcycle, but at first it was just because of the motorcycle I rode.
– And it stayed with you forever…
– Yes, to the point that my daughters don’t call me dad, they call me “Toro” or “Toro Moto”. I have two: one is a lawyer and the other a psychologist. They followed a different path than mine: instead of playing sports, they dedicated themselves to studying. His sport is books. I didn’t study because they gave me rein, but I didn’t let my daughters down. And that’s why they have the same fanaticism for studying that I have for rugby.