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Bernardo Houssay won the 1947 Nobel Prize for medicine, Arturo Rodriguez Jurado the gold for heavyweight boxing at the 1928 Olympics, and Ernesto Guevara became a revolutionary icon. But the first Argentinian rugby player to achieve international renown for his feats on the field was Hugo Porta, who turns 65 on September 11.Like many of the greatest careers, his had elements of the serendipitous. He was initially enthused by football, and good enough to have interested the famous Boca Juniors club. And he began rugby life as a scrum-half, which he played well enough for Banco Nacion -- his first and only club -- to be called into the national squad as a teenager, before an injury crisis led to his being pressed into service as an emergency outside-half at a squad session.That was the end of the budding scrum-half. His first cap at No.10 followed shortly after, against Chile in Buenos Aires a month after his 20th birthday in 1971. And it would be the best part of another two decades -- a durability which helped persuade the young Diego Dominguez that invoking his Italian ancestry might be a better route to an international rugby career than waiting for Porta to lose form or quit -- before Argentina again wanted for an outside-half.The numbers are impressive -- a Test career which lasted from 1971 to 1990 and a total of 651 points , then the all-time record for any international player, in 52 matches for Argentina and eight for South America.Even if the 228 points scored against nations not then recognised as having full Test status are excluded, he went well past the previous man on the all-time record holders list -- Andy Irvine, with 301 points -- before eventually giving way to Michael Lynagh.And he was vastly more than an accumulator of points against weaker nations. His career coincided with the period in which Argentina started to threaten the established order. And a common factor in the landmark results of that period is the contribution of the Porta boot.He scored all 18 points in the draw against France in 1977, a further 16 including a hat-trick of drop goals in the 24-13 defeat of Australia in 1979, every point including another trio of drops in the 21-21 draw with the All Blacks in 1985 and a further 21 in South Americas 21-12 overthrow of the Boks at Bloemfontein in 1982. His 28 drop goals were also an all-time record, since overtaken by Jonny Wilkinson.Yet it was as a creator that he made the greatest impression. Carwyn James, a towering rugby intellect and himself a former international outside-half, wrote after first seeing him in the flesh of having his faith restored in the aesthetic and artistic possibilities of back play.John Reason wrote that he could play closer to an opponent without being tackled than the top matador working with a bull, and there are echoes of Jack Kyle in Reasons observation that he looked predictable but never was.Opponents were similarly awe-struck. All Black captain Graham Mourie reckoned, from his privileged open-side observation point, that Porta was the best first-five he played against, recalling memorably that he always left a free arm slack so he could sense a tackle coming and adjust: he felt that on his arm like a cats whisker.Michael Lynagh found him hard even to get near and that you could only keep doing your best and sit back and admire him through gritted teeth.In 1985 Midi Olympique reckoned him the best player in the world, while Rothmans Rugby Yearbook named him the best outside-half of the 1980s -- a decade which also saw Naas Botha, Mark Ella, Lynagh, Jonathan Davies, John Rutherford, Ollie Campbell, Tony Ward, Rob Andrew and Grant Fox. Legendary commentator Bill McLaren rated him the best he had seen.Yet perhaps the most remarkable honour was the one conferred at home, as Argentinas Sportsman of the Year in 1985. It was one thing for the aficionados of long-established rugby nations to recognise his greatness, quite another for his famously football-besotted compatriots to look past its practitioners -- who in 1985 included a near-his-peak Diego Maradona -- to a giant in a minority pastime left over from Argentinas past as an economic dependency of the British Empire.A qualified architect, Porta retired from rugby in 1990 expecting to go into the family kitchen business. But he was rapidly diverted to an old rugby stamping ground when President Carlos Menem, wanting to re-open diplomatic relations with South Africa following the release of Nelson Mandela, appointed him ambassador to Pretoria.Menem calculated correctly that Portas personality and rugby fame would outweigh any objections to the sanctions-busting of the three South America tours he led to the Republic between 1980 and 1984, the name a thin disguise adopted by overwhelmingly Argentinian squads because of their unions opposition to contact with apartheid. His time in Pretoria was followed by a spell as Argentinas Minister of Sport, no sinecure in a country which takes it so seriously.The voice heard in periodic interviews in recent years has been one of nostalgia for the amateur game. But there is no reason to doubt him when he says that he never made a cent playing rugby -- Argentina was the one country exempted from the seminal Pugh reports damning condemnation of the hypocrisy of leading rugby nations over money.And you dont have to be an apologist for the pre-1995 era to share his worries that players dont have the freedoms that I felt when I was a player or that they might not develop minds and thinking in the same way as their bodies.Idealist as he is, Porta was also enough of a pragmatist to have played his part, as a member of the Argentine Rugby Unions directorate in the early years of Argentinas evolution from rigid amateurism to the highly successful professionalism of the present.As the Pumas of today continue their thrilling challenge to the games long-standing hierarchies, they will doubtless join much of the rugby world in wishing their greatest forerunner Feliz Cumpleanos.China Jerseys Online . "Theyve both been real good," said Babcock. "Havent changed our minds." A decision has seemingly been made - Sundays Group B-deciding tilt against Finland ahead - but it could not have been an easy one. Price opened the tournament with a sturdy 19-save performance against the Norwegians, yielding just one goal. Wholesale NFL Jerseys . If ever they start actually putting pictures beside words in the dictionary, the Blue Jays left-handers mug will appear beside “Consistency. http://www.chinawholesalejerseysnfl.com/ .B. - Sebastien Auger made 44 saves as the Saint John Sea Dogs edged the visiting Acadie-Bathurst Titan 2-1 on Saturday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Wholesale MLB Jerseys .com) - The Chicago Blackhawks aim for their third three-game winning streak of the season when they host the struggling Edmonton Oilers in Sundays battle at the United Center. Cheap NFL Jerseys . After dropping their final six games of December, the Wild opened the new calendar year with four consecutive wins. Following a loss to Colorado on Saturday, Minnesota rebounded the following night to blank Nashville 4-0, but then had the tables turned on them Tuesday.PARIS -- With an unassuming group of players lighting up the European Championship, Icelands dazzling advance has been infectious.Even France, which has a recent history of rebellion, is talking up the importance of team unity as the two-time European champions prepare to face Iceland in Sundays quarterfinal.If someone wants to act like a star, well put them back in their place, France defender Patrice Evra said. The team is the star.France may be host of Euro 2016 and one of the favorites to win the tournament, but the limelight has been well and truly seized by the fearless Icelanders, who are unbeaten in four matches and dispatched England to reach the last eight.Not bad for a team from the smallest nation to ever contest the European Championship.Iceland hasnt scrapped through with ultra-defensive football. It has scored the same number of goals as France -- six -- and stands potentially 180 minutes from the final.A lot of people have underestimated the smaller nations, Evra said.No longer, although France hasnt lost to Iceland in 11 previous meetings.Icelands ascent in international football can be traced through its past fixtures with France.Now ranked 34 in the world by FIFA, Iceland was as low as 131st when it last faced France in a friendly four years ago. Even then there were flickers of optimism for the Nordic nation of 330,000. Iceland led 2-0 before France came from behind to win 3-2.It was the same final score when Iceland was last at the Stade de France in 1999 for a European Championship qualifier against the then world champion.However vast the rankings gulf has been, Iceland has been no pushover..ddddddddddddMaybe we have players with less individual quality, if you compare our players with the French team, which has players in almost every position playing in the Champions League day in day out, Iceland joint-coach Heimir Hallgrimsson said.Theres not many in the Iceland team that has played Champions League. In individual quality you can see that they are superior. So we have to be collective and work together to make up for it.The pressure and expectation is all on France -- and particularly striker Olivier Giroud, who hasnt found the net since the opening game against Romania when the host won 2-1.Because he hasnt scored for two games some people might criticize him and say, `(Antoine) Griezmanns scoring all the goals, Evra said.Evra highlighted how Girouds header set up Griezmann for his second -- and match-winning -- goal against Ireland in the round of 16.We need Olivier and we believe in him, Evra said.France will have to cope without the suspended duo of center back Adil Rami and midfielder NGolo Kante on Sunday. Yohan Cabaye is expected to take Kantes place as was the case when Didier Deschamps rested the Leicester player for the final group game against Switzerland.Samuel Umtiti has been tipped to fill in for Rami and make his France debut on the biggest of stages. Set for a post-Euro 2016 move to Barcelona, Umtiti only made the France squad after two teammates pulled out injured.---Jerome Pugmire in Paris and Ciaran Fahey in Annecy, France contributed to this report. ' ' '