Cordero: ‘I feel like the season is starting’

Disaster struck in Santiago Cordero’s second training session with Connacht.

Last August, the Argentinean suffered a “significant knee injury” and was ruled out for a prolonged period, just days after arriving from Bordeaux.

No time to settle into new surroundings, no time to get to know his team-mates and no time to impress the Clan Stand.

A 50-cap Puma, Cordero was known on these shores mostly for helping dump Ireland out of the World Cup in 2015.

He was a marquee signing, “a real statement of intent by the club,” said Pete Wilkins back in March 2023 when the move was announced.

But as Connacht meandered through the season, Cordero was working his socks off in the gym, determined to play a role.

“Finally, the day came, I was very happy,” said the 30-year-old of his 18-minute cameo in Connacht’s BKT URC loss to Stormers 11 days ago, their last game at the Dexcom Stadium before it undergoes a significant refurbishment.

“First of all, very happy to be able to play and happy to recover well.

“Not very happy with the result but there’s nothing we can do now.

“It was very weird. I knew it was going to be my first and my last in this place because everything is going to be gone, so I couldn’t get used to that normal feeling.”

He would have loved to introduce himself properly to the Connacht faithful with a match-winning cameo but it wasn’t to be.

“It wasn’t much [time]. I think it’s a good thing because I thought I was going to finish dead after the game,” he said.

“I just can’t wait to be back and play again, the more the better for me. I know the season is finishing in a couple of weeks but I feel like the season is starting.”

To get back for any part of the season, which will come to an end if Connacht don’t take five points off Leinster on Friday night at the RDS, was, in itself, an achievement.

The former Jaguares and Exeter player had brought his wife, Bernadita (below), and two small kids, including a newborn with him to Galway.

He admits the road to recovery was “very long” and detailed how he filled in his time post-surgery when not working on his rehabilitation.

“So first couple of weeks were very, very tough mentally,” he said.

“Just waking up every morning and looking at my knee and thinking, ‘yeah, it’s still there, it’s still the injury’.

“Then with the family, it was just trying to get everything out of my system and the only thing I could do I was rehab, just keep going forward.

“I was new, I wanted to prove myself.

“I wanted show everyone what I could do but this is an injury that nobody wants to have.

“It took me two weeks to deal with that and then after that I start moving forward, I got surgery early, thank God, and the only thing I could do was rehabbing, rehabbing, keep on going.

“Actually having kids is very good because you don’t think about the knee all the time, you have to be a dad and it helps you to get through it.

“The first thing for me, mentally was the big challenge because I was arriving as a new player.

“I didn’t know all the players. Then I got injured and when you are injured you have a different training [schedule]. You are not with the boys.

“I used that time to study. I finished my PT [personal training] level 2 or 3, which I started when I was in Exeter.

“Then I started a small course, which was three months on how to start your own business, just for fun.

“Then just trying to help the team from where I was standing and try to rehab and get fit.

“My wife loves [Ireland], my kids…they don’t have any option.

“But yeah, we’re really happy here, Galway is beautiful. It’s amazing, we can’t complain.

“The only thing I would say [that’s hard to get used to] is the wind and the rain.”

Cordero picked Connacht despite having other offers. He scored 137 points in 68 games for Bordeaux over four seasons and never felt he got a break from the Top14 grind.

He spoke to Felipe Contepomi, who spent ten years as a player and coach with Leinster, before making his decision to move to Ireland.

He said: “I was in Bordeaux for four years and I was playing every single game, 80 minutes, and that was killing me, honestly, and I felt that the way we trained, my rugby was dropping. I wasn’t getting any better.

“I was just playing and maybe I was playing well but I felt like I needed a change and a couple of clubs from France were there raising their hand, but I felt like that was going to be more of the same.

“So, I spoke to Pete and then I asked them how they’d train, what they did, and of course I know Ireland, they train very well. You can see how the national team is going.

“Then I spoke with Felipe Contepomi about going to Ireland, what he thought about that and he spoke very well about Irish clubs.

“Then I just wanted to become a better player, to improve my rugby and be a better rugby player. That’s why I basically decided to come here.”

His enthusiasm comes across clearly on the Zoom call on Monday and it almost seems cruel to point out that his season could come to an end in a few days.

Even if Connacht claim an unlikely bonus-point win against Leinster, coming off the back of their Champions Cup loss, in Dublin, they need two more results to fall their way on Saturday to sneak into the play-offs.

“If I get to play, it’s just going to be amazing,” said the Buenos Aires native, who hopes to get a call-up to the Argentina squad for their summer games against France.

“I’ll be like a young little kid playing my first rugby game, I’m just going to try to enjoy it as much as I can.

“We talk about all the possibilities but for us the only thing we can do is go there and get a win.

“The rest, we can pray. For me it’s just to go and play well and try to get a win. We don’t need to get our head in other stuff because there’s nothing we can do about it.

“If it’s the last game of the season, I will think about making a good pre-season, just keep on working on my fitness, on my knee, on my rugby and just try to come back for next season better than ever.”

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