History boy Heyes braced for Argentina backlash
For five years Joe Heyes packed down alongside Julian Montoya. For 80 minutes on Saturday, it was as if they had never met."We didn't really look at each other, we didn't really say a word and, at the end of the game, he just said, 'I'll see you next week'," Heyes tells BBC Sport."I suppose we'll probably have the pleasantries then."I have a huge amount of respect for Julian, I know how intense he is as a competitor, and I know it's coming again on Saturday."Montoya's disappointment was understandable.In front of a passionate crowd in La Plata, the Argentina captain had just been confounded by an England performance that combined grit and glitter, with Heyes - his long-time Leicester team-mate - at its heart.Four second-half tries made up most of the highlights, but England's win was built on a gloriously defiant first-half defensive effort.Reduced to 13 men for a period by Alex Coles and Seb Atkinson's yellow cards, they shut out the Pumas and even went into the interval with a 3-0 lead thanks to a George Ford drop-goal.Prop Heyes put in one shuddering hit that typified England's aggression."Somehow I hit with my right shoulder and my left one hurt," he remembers."It was that big, you know? There were just bodies flying everywhere."Everyone stepped up really well and the defence was something that we could be really, really proud of. That's our standard now."
Three times in the first half, England held up Argentina over the line, gambling that they could keep the ball off the ground as they grappled the hosts backwards to earn a pressure-relieving drop-out under their own posts.If Heyes modestly describes the skill involved as turning himself into "a human speed bump", his swift pop from the base of a ruck to set up wing Tom Roebuck's second try was as smooth as fresh tarmac."I got some nice compliments after that, with elements of surprise in there," he says."My dad said he didn't know I could pass off my left. I always felt I had it in my locker, but I think a lot of people were surprised by it. I was complimented and insulted at the same time!"Heyes has been sparking a similar reaction at the front of the team bus in Argentina.A self-confessed "history nause" he delivers facts of the day to the rest of the squad."La Plata is the 'city of diagonals'," he says, recalling one of his nuggets from first-Test week."It was the first urban-planned town in South America."Argentina's answer to Milton Keynes?"There's a big cathedral in the middle, but you're probably not far off."Heyes says he is "a bit of a sucker for a cathedral". He has already visited San Juan's cathedral as the squad settle into the city before Saturday's second Test.In Buenos Aires, he got up early to make solo visits to La Casa Rosada (the presidential palace), the Metropolitan Cathedral where Pope Francis served as Archbishop and the city's food markets."I've really been a bit of a culture vulture, getting stuck right in," he says."It's a weird one, but I've always loved history. As a kid I would watch Horrible Histories on TV and get the magazines. I have always being fascinated as to why things are the way they are and how that links to history."He is just the latest England tighthead with a passion for the past. Will Stuart and Dan Cole's reading material is similarly heavyweight.Heyes is at a loss to explain the phenomenon."I don't know really," he says."Maybe tightheads are people of the past and looseheads are more up to date with current affairs, trends and stuff. I might be generalising there."Heyes knows how significant it will be if he and his team-mates can combine again to write headlines and history by securing a series win on Saturday."Being a team-mate of Julian's and knowing he is leading the team, I am fully, fully expecting a massive response from Argentina," he says."The only thing that we can do is making sure that we're in the right spot to do the same as we did on Saturday. We're ready for it."If we do go on and have the success we want to have on this tour, then I think some of the memories we'll make for everyone - especially these younger guys - will stay with us forever."
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