Santiago Carreras is preparing for a match 20 years in the making.
For Argentina, who are not part of the British and Irish Lions touring rotation, the scarcity value of Friday’s fixture in Dublin is sky high.
“You might play this game once in your life – it is so special,” the 27-year-old tells BBC Sport.
“Everyone in the team is looking forward to it.”
The last big-cat tear-up between the Lions and Pumas was back in 2005, when a last-gasp Jonny Wilkinson penalty spared the New Zealand-bound tourists defeat and secured a 25-25 draw.
Forget colour television – the handful of other meetings between the two teams were before even colour photography was much of a thing.
Never, though, have Argentina had such a good chance of victory.
The current crop of Pumas are ranked fifth in the world.
They have beaten three of the four teams above them in the past 12 months.
Ireland, the only higher-ranked team to avoid recent defeat against Argentina, were pushed all the way in November in their most recent visit to Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.
And the Lions are still pulling together their squad, with a number – most noticeably the 12-strong Leinster contingent – involved in last weekend’s domestic finals.
Ominously, Carreras says there is more to come under the leadership of Felipe Contepomi, who captained the 2005 Argentina side to that draw in Cardiff, and took over as head coach from Michael Cheika after a run to the 2023 Rugby World Cup semi-finals.
“I think we are still building our game and our culture,” said Carreras.
“We showed a really good face on the field over the past year.
“The most similar thing [between Cheika and Contepomi] is the mindset to win and to play.
“We want to back ourselves to play and do the things we talk about.
“The mindset of the group internally is really competitive – that is the best thing.”
