Felipe Contepomi’s route from Leinster playmaker to Argentina head coach ahead of Dublin test
Felipe Contepomi, who succeeded Michael Cheika as Argentina head coach in 2023, brings the Pumas to the Aviva Stadium in Dublin to face Ireland on Friday 6 November in the Nations Championship. The match completes the start of Argentina's second block of Nations Championship fixtures.
Contepomi and Cheika overlapped for four seasons at Leinster as the province built towards its first Heineken Cup in 2009; Contepomi left for Toulon that summer after missing the final through injury. During his playing spell in Dublin he regularly held the No 10 shirt ahead of a young Johnny Sexton, and while still at Leinster he completed a Bachelor of Medicine degree at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 2007, earning the nickname 'Dr Phil'.
Cheika says he did not expect his former fly-half to become a coach: "No, I didn't," he says without missing a beat. He added of elite players moving into coaching: "He was obviously a highly-skilled player and you know what they say about some of the best players? They don't make the greatest coaches because they think everyone can do what they could do and they actually can't." Thirteen years after their paths diverged, and after Contepomi had spent four seasons as Leinster's attack coach, Cheika brought him into the Pumas set-up as his assistant in 2022.
Joe Schmidt, Cheika's successor at Leinster, spent three seasons at the province between Contepomi's stints as a player and an assistant and describes him as a "pretty good friend" from their time in opposing coaching boxes. The pair met head-to-head in the Rugby Championships of 2024 and 2025, each winning two of the four contests, with Argentina's 67–27 victory in 2024 the most comprehensive. Schmidt said: "I'd have a really high opinion of Felipe as a master of playing the game, but as a student of coaching the game," and added, "I think he blends the two to be a really good coach."
Former Leinster back Luke Fitzgerald, who called Contepomi a "folk-hero" in Dublin, stressed the combination of intellect and experience in his profile. "He's a great personality and obviously a super smart guy, as you can tell from being a qualified doctor too," said the 34-times capped Ireland international who was a Test Lion in 2009. "You can see his CV is very well filled out on the experience side, and I think what is the X-factor for him is that little bit of creativity that we would have seen in his own game."
Contepomi took sole charge of Argentina after the 2023 World Cup and, as head of the coaching ticket, has recorded wins over New Zealand, South Africa and the British and Irish Lions. Argentina are currently ranked eighth in the world; they have won six of their 15 Tests since the victory over the Lions in Dublin last year. Cheika praised the side's work under Contepomi: "They're performing great, well above their weight," he said. "People take it a little bit for granted with Argentina. Well, 'yeah, they're a great team' and all that, but these guys are performing with so much less access to resources than any of the other countries that are at the top.
Contepomi arrives back in Dublin amid reports he has ruled himself out of succeeding Leo Cullen at Leinster when his Argentina contract concludes after next year's World Cup. Ronan O'Gara, Stuart Lancaster and Leinster's current senior coach Jacques Nienaber were among those linked to the vacancy, which now appears set to be filled by Bordeaux-Begles' Irish attack coach Noel McNamara.
Starting their second block of Nations Championship fixtures against Ireland in the Aviva Stadium on Friday offers Argentina the chance for another big scalp; Cheika said of Contepomi's progress: "He's had to go back and I suppose teach himself how to do that and he's done it really, really well and that's why the team is able to achieve more consistency than it's ever probably had before. "I'm very proud of him, obviously as a friend of mine, a former player of mine, and now a colleague from coaching as well and I hope that they can continue that movement all the way through to the World Cup of '27."