When it comes to international sport, relationship-building is key. Forming partnerships, refining combinations, gradually building a sense of togetherness. It all helps a team navigate the most challenging times, and is often the difference between success and failure.
Strong squad ties are a major reason that Chile, who face England in Lille on Saturday, qualified for their first Rugby World Cup with a dramatic playoff win against the USA last July.
Among the 33-man squad, 30 play for Selknam, the country’s only professional club. Not to mention that 17 of them attended two Santiago schools: 10 were educated at the Grange, seven at Craighouse, and before that many of them first played with and against each other at primary school.
It was Santiago Videla’s late penalty kick that snatched qualification in Colorado last year – Chile’s 52-51 aggregate victory achieved despite them falling 20 points behind in the second leg.
“We’re like a big family together,” Videla says from the team’s base in Perros-Guirec, Brittany, a hop across the Channel from south-west England. “Not only the ones from the same school. I know my teammates’ families, I know exactly what we’ve all been through … With three, four or five of my teammates, I’ve known them since I have memory.”
Videla’s recollections of his education demonstrate the profound way British culture has influenced Chilean rugby. A network of more than 20 British schools has embedded the sport in a traditionally football-mad country.
“It was mainly Chilean students, but there were many British teachers,” Videla says of his secondary school. “They treated us as if English was our first language. We did GCSEs and A-levels, the same as if we were in a British school.”
While the squad’s bonds are strong, old school rivalries have not been entirely forgotten. “There are always little jokes between us, but just jokes,” Videla says. “We are very good friends. At school we sort of hated each other – kids’ things, childrens’ things. But what we’ve been through together in the last few years, and now adding this experience in the World Cup … it will keep us together for many years.”
The multi-talented Videla plays fly-half, full-back or wing, where he started against Japan and Samoa, and is an alumnus of the Grange, while his teammate Alfonso Escobar was at Craighouse.
“My 10 teammates from the Grange have been … I don’t want to say my nemesis,” Escobar says. “But Craighouse and Grange are always champions of tournaments in Chile.
“Two weeks ago, our clubs played a final: Craighouse Old Boys v Old Grangonians. They were 20 of us here [at the Brittany team base] watching, fighting, doing bets with each other. Only for fun.”
British influence, judging by Escobar’s experience, is more pronounced at Craighouse. “I had to sing the British anthem every Friday, so I know it very well,” he says, before naming his fellow back-row, the currently suspended Tom Curry, as the England player he most admires.
Will Escobar be tempted to join in when the band strikes up in Lille and Steve Borthwick’s players belt out God Save the King? “I know my old teachers will probably want me to sing it,” he says, laughing. Escobar also says he is eager to measure himself against England’s players: “I know them all. I see them on TV every weekend.”
The 26-year-old starts at No 8 on Saturday, and with his brother Diego was one of four pairs of brothers in Chile’s squad, along with Santiago and Benjamín Videla and the twins, Clemente and Domingo Saavedra. There was also Matías and Nicolás Garafulic before the latter withdrew injured. Following a concussion in the 43-10 defeat by Samoa, Santiago Videla is sidelined, but his brother Benjamín is given his first Test start at scrum-half.
Media reports in Chile estimate 5,000 supporters have travelled to France to follow the team, and the England fixture is not the only one to carry wider significance for Los Cóndores. One may think Argentina are seen as fierce rivals but Los Pumas, in fact, are admired as trailblazers for South American rugby. At 25 Santiago Videla is just old enough to remember them finishing third in 2007.
“As Chileans we’d never played at a Rugby World Cup, so the first team we supported was Argentina,” he says. “It was obvious. Me and my friends always supported Los Pumas. A few times we went with my family to Mendoza or Buenos Aires to watch them play the All Blacks or England. So it’s kind of unbelievable to be playing against them. It will be a very passionate match.”
Videla names Owen Farrell – back from suspension and starting at fly-half on Saturday – as his own favourite England player. “I’m always watching him,” says Videla. “It’s difficult not to admire him. He’s been at the top for many years, and that is not an easy path.”
Marcus Smith and Henry Arundell also start for England, but even before the team was announced, Alfonso Escobar was anticipating more of a running game from Borthwick’s side. “I think they might want to play a little bit more with the hand,” he says. “But they will have a very strong setpiece.”
Their qualification was a wonderful tale in itself and perhaps Chile’s biggest challenge now awaits. No matter the result against England, it will be another chapter written in their remarkable and long-running story.
