Capo prepared for Dallaglio test after tough route to top

Spare a thought for Lawrence Dallaglio, only a gnat's crotchet away from his best form yet persistently confronted by rival No 8s determined to expose his temporary frailties to the watching world. If Juan Smith, the brilliant young exponent from South Africa's high veld, gave the long-serving Wasp more than a little to think about in Perth a couple of weeks ago - Smith's running game bore precious little resemblance to the lumbering jurassicism practised by graduates of the Dean Richards school of loose forward play - Semo Sititi of Samoa rubbed salt in the wound by scoring one of the great tries of this or any other year last Sunday.

And this weekend, when Dallaglio might have expected an easy ride - or even, heaven forbid, a day in the surf off Snapper Rocks beach? Why, here comes Rodrigo Capo. Rodrigo who? England will find out on Sunday. Capo may be playing for one of the less powerful teams in this 20-nation tournament, but he is nobody's idea of a seven-stone weakling. Kick sand in this bloke's face and you can expect an entire dune in return.

Capo is one of only three Uruguayans playing big-time professional rugby - he is a member of the Castres club and earns his money in the same French championship as Pablo Lemoine of Stade Français and Juan Carlos Bado of Bègles-Bordeaux - and is highly conscious of his responsibilities towards what remains largely an amateur team. "I am proud of those players who make more sacrifices than I, and it is important that I show that pride on the field," he said yesterday, after team training on the outskirts of Brisbane. (Capo sat out most of the session, nursing a calf injury suffered in Tuesday's emotional victory over Georgia in Sydney.)

"A lot of these people have wives and children to support, and they risk losing their jobs by putting rugby first. Back home in Montevideo, they go to the gym in the early hours of the morning, before doing their day's work. To come here, some terrible choices had to be made - choices I avoided, because of my nice professional contract and the support of my club. But these sacrifices are also beautiful, because I know these men - the Uruguayan rugby community is very small and very close - and understand what it means to them to play rugby in a World Cup."

He was thinking of the likes of Diego Aguirre, the captain, who shut down his graphic design business for the duration of the tournament and has no clear idea how much financial grief that decision may be causing him. "I used to have a partner, but he moved to Europe," Aguirre explained. "Without him, there was no alternative but to close the door." By throwing in his teaching job in the capital and backing himself to make the grade in the ruthless and often brutal world of French club rugby, Capo spared himself that kind of dilemma.

But his was not an easy road. He hacked around the Third Division for three and a half unfulfilling months before returning to South America. It was only when he arrived home that he received an approach from Castres, who had reached the Heineken Cup semi-finals the previous season but were suddenly down on their uppers after the departures of several senior players. "I played two games for the second XV, then made my championship debut against Grenoble," Capo said, with deep satisfaction. "I have been there ever since." Whatever he has learned, he has learned it well. Capo, still five weeks short of his 23rd birthday but blessed with the ability to play top-flight rugby in any of the back-five positions of the scrum, transcended the carnage of his team's opening 72-6 defeat at the hands of the Springboks with his mighty commitment at the heart of Los Teros' forward effort, and then put a try past the Samoans four days later. Against Georgia, he was more impressive still. A number of Uruguayans caught the eye in this must-win match, 80 intense minutes that would either justify their trip to Australia or render it meaningless: Aguirre, Juan Campomar, Diego Lamelas and Nicolas Grille were terrific. But Capo led the way. The more the Georgians booted him as he lay prone at the bottom of innumerable rucks, the more he made them suffer.

In defeat, even Capo may have dreaded this forthcoming meeting with an England cut to the quick by the Samoan uprising in Melbourne. In victory, he is positively relishing the prospect. "England are one of the teams I expect to reach the final," he said, "and they have excellence in every part of their team. But this is the whole point for me. I want to test myself against them, and against Dallaglio in particular. I want to understand where I stand as a rugby player.

"Dallaglio is strong, yes. He is one of the most famous of the English players, and with good reason. But on the pitch, you know, reputations mean little. It is man against man, 15 against 15." That, of course, is where Capo may have it wrong; as we have come to realise over these last few days, England do not always play with 15. He smiled at the joke and limped away towards a waiting jeep. While he had been talking, the rest of the Uruguayans had boarded the team bus and headed back to the hotel. He, of all the South Americans in this tournament, will not be left behind on Sunday.

* France go into today's Pool B match with the United States looking to right a 79-year wrong. The Americans' only success against the French in five meetings was a 17-3 victory in the final of the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, the last time rugby union was an Olympic sport. France's World Cup coach, Bernard Laporte, said: "Just think, we could be the reigning Olympic champions. We really want to take our revenge." The US coach, Tom Billups, is also aware of 1924. "It is an important part of our rugby history in America, but this France team is cut from a different cloth," he said.