Miguel Betranou was a typically hardened Argentinean flank forward, who won 15 caps from 1989 to 1993 and tackled everything that moved – those who were tackled struggled to move thereafter.
Now his son, Gonzalo, has followed in his footsteps, emerging from the Los Tordos club in Mendoza but he is a different chip off the old block.
A sniping, snappy scrum-half, he may have sought to emulate his father when first picking up a rugby ball as a three-year-old but his silky spills may have been passed down from elsewhere.
“My mum gave me a little bit of skill,” he smiles impishly.
He and his side should be in fine fettle. After a wildly chaotic opening half in Udinese, they put 50 on Italy a day after Ireland’s status as the world’s supposedly best team was humbly mocked as they lost a long unbeaten home record.
Betranou remains politely cautious.
“Against Ireland in Dublin it’s one of the biggest challenges in rugby that world rugby has right now so we must be better in every single part of the game. If we want to be competitive against Ireland we must be better in everything.
“The game against Italy is gone. We are focusing on ourselves, just being better, being consistent. That is the biggest challenge that we have this week, being consistent and being better than we have been last week against Italy.
“It’s the only team that we haven’t beaten in Europe at home, so we know what’s coming, we know that Ireland is if not the best team in the world, in Dublin they are very, very, very good so our detail must be on spot on Friday night.”
He will not be budged by a hint that Ireland’s sudden vulnerability at home might aid the Pumas’ quest to win here for the first time in history.
“We’re focusing on ourselves. I’m never going to say that Ireland disappoint because we know what is coming, so maybe it’s your job to say that but it’s not my job!
“We know that it’s going to be a terrific game and a terrific battle so we are focusing on ourselves and being consistent.
“We know that we are going to face a different beast with Ireland because we never win against Ireland in Dublin.”