Argentina skipper Julian Montoya has recalled how his brutal first day at Leicester left him fearing it would be impossible to earn the respect of Steve Borthwick’s Tigers squad.
Following the 2020 collapse of the Jaguares Super Rugby franchise due to the pandemic, the hooker was snapped up by Borthwick in January 2021 and he went on to enjoy a stellar four and a half year stay at the club.
By the time he finished this summer, Montoya had played his part in Leicester’s 2023 Premiership title win and had also captained the team in the 2025 final.
Before he flew out for the start of Argentina’s Rugby Championship campaign, which last Saturday resulted in a first-ever home win over New Zealand, Montoya shot the breeze on the For The Love Of Rugby show with Ben Youngs and Dan Cole, two of his former Leicester teammates.
“One of the worst ever…”
Both Youngs and Cole retired from rugby following Leicester’s defeat by Bath in last June’s English final, but Montoya certainly isn’t stopping yet and the 31-year-old will hook up with Pau in the French Top 14 when his current Test commitments with Argentina end.
Montoya’s contribution at Leicester was highly praised when he announced that the 2024/25 season was his last at the club, but he opened up with Youngs and Cole on their show about how his first day training with the squad at Oval Park left him mortified and fearing the worst.
He struggled with the bench press in the gym and then blew up on the Watt bike as he had never been on one before, resulting in him going to home to his Leicester hotel that night and telling his wife about his embarrassing day.
“I arrived there and they said straight out, the strength and conditioning guy, ‘You are going to go to the bench press. Coley, Tom Youngs, (Ellis) Gengey, let’s go’.
“I knew what was going to happen, I knew it straight away. I finished the set, maybe it was like 125/2. They started warming up, and I was saying that I was so embarrassed. I went back to the hotel and said it to my wife that it was one of the worst ever.
“I was so embarrassed with what was happening. I was, ‘It is impossible to earn respect if I’m that s**t in the gym’.
“And then we have our Watt bike session, and I went with Tom Youngs. I had never done a Watt bike before. Never, ever. We started a competition, and Tom was the best and we lost the competition.
“He was the best by far, but we lost the competition (against the other front-rowers). I was like, ‘Sorry, Tom. It was my first time’. I couldn’t walk for a while. It was probably the worst landing, for sure.”
Compounding the day was how the Leicester forwards joked that Montoya was looking to fight with Tom Youngs. “We were going to do some lineouts in the dome, and I was drinking water and asked Tom, ‘Do you want some?’ I didn’t understand the joke. And then they started saying, ‘Do you want some? Do you want some?’ No one told me anything.”
Montoya explained it was the 2011 Rugby World Cup that planted the seed in his mind that Leicester would be a great club to join if he ever got the chance. “Such a big club in name, big players. When I was young, I looked at you at the 2011 World Cup, so I said, ‘Okay, let’s go’.
“When I arrived, there were a few Argentinians here playing, so that made it a soft landing; it was a bit easier in that regard. But I am very grateful for the club and the players. You made it easier for me to understand and that made it easy.
“I’m not a very good (English) speaker, especially the first year when I arrived. But it was very easy-going, how you two treated me and the rest of the team. The language barrier is there, but when I hear you speaking Spanish, I am proud of my English.”
Ben Youngs replied: “The language barrier is so good, but you settled in so quickly. You were an absolute champion, the way you flew into it. The boys absolutely love you for it.
“To think how you first started to where you are now, captain of the club, leaving, winning the title, you have been absolutely amazing.”
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