Prospects For Argentina In The Rugby Championship

First topic message reminder :

This year, Argentina will finally make their debut in an annual rugby tournament, entering the expanded Tri-Nations which shall now be known as The Rugby Championship.

So how will Argentina fare in their first tournament? With their players plying their trade in Europe in the main, they will be at the end of a long season which began with a World Cup in New Zealand in September and will finish on the 16th October a year later. Add into this, they will be playing against the three best teams in the world and expectations are immediately low.

What should they aim for? In my opinion, they should be looking at 2 home wins as a minimum. Argentina will be a tough place to travel to and they should use that to their advantage especially as they fought against the SANZAR axis and have selected all three of their games to be outside Buenos Aires. Of their away games, Australia might be the best chance of an away victory, as this will be Australia's first ever game in Gold Coast, so might be a little unsettled in those surroundings but it will still be a tough ask.

Here are all the fixtures:

Round 1 v South Africa, Newlands, Cape Town

Round 2 v South Africa, Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza

Round 3 v New Zealand, Westpac Stadium, Wellington

Round 4 v Australia, Skilled Park, Gold Coast

Round 5 v New Zealand, Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, La Plata

Round 6 v Australia, Estadio Gigante de Arroyito, Rosario


I think that no matter what pack they select, they will prove nuggety opposition and cause trouble for whoever they encounter but it is the backline which will determine how well they do. Juan Martin Hernandez has had a good run without injury recently and has been doing well for Racing Metro at pivot. His team mate at Racing, Juan Imhoff, has been one of the finds of the season after a good World Cup on the wing. Lucas Amorisino will provide a dangerous attacking option from deep, while they possess other good players in the form of Martin Rodriguez and Santiago Fernandez. Where they are weak is at outside centre.

So what are your thoughts and hopes for Los Pumas in the upcoming Championship?

typical SA journalism

Shesh biltong, can't you guys do anything right
As we've hit David Attenborough hour, check out the argentinian dorado. Massive!!

EBOP, we are the modern equivalent of the first car ever built, moderately innovative, yet highly inneffectual.

ah thanks. Couldn't quite remember the jaguar puma confusion story.

It´s an easy mistake to make. I remember when a journalist thought the Wallabies were called the Wannabes and it stuck ever since Australia stopped beating us.

It´s not just journos though. Sometimes the refs mistake the silver fern on Richie McCaw´s shirt for an angel wing.

Cheers kia! Now rap yourself on the head with a castanet!

Argie fan wrote:
What many people do not know is that The Pampas XV, is something like factory of future Pumas. As their coach Daniel Hourcade says:"To us is not important the result of Vodacom Cup, the truly important, our real goal is to train players to be available for the coaching staff of Los Pumas".

Talking of journalism... whoever Hourcade's press agent is; take a bow. How did that particular quote get through to print?

It´s the ANZAC test that´s fired me up mate. You know it's all in good fun. If I had said England Rose was misunderstood for England blows it would've sounded mean spirited after their impressive 6N this year.

Maybe our friend worldinpain wrote that article mate.

(clears throat) "I know nothing....!"

Yes, just watched the ANZAC Test too. Good game. I knew it would be close. These eediots at sportsbet had some silly odds. I thought it was damn rude... not to mention way off the mark!

The Reds lost to the Stormers 23-10. The Stormers defence was awesome; the Reds tried their hardest but just couldn't break them. There was a lucky try (gift) to Horwill with about 15 to go but the game was effectively over at HT with the Stormers up 17-3. Superb counter-attacking and a dominant performance from them with all those top players missing.

leinsterbaby wrote:It's a jaguar on the crest but a south African journalist in the 60s made a mistake and called them the pumas and it stuck. There are both jaguars and pumas in Argentina.

Yes, the history its true. If you look closely at the crest of Los Pumas, it's actually a jaguar.
Because of this mistake, the UAR (Union Argentina de Rugby) officially called Team B of Los pumas, as Los Jaguares. This team is made up mainly of players up to 23 years, and up to 25 years in the frontrow. Los Jaguares, represents Argentina in tournaments less hierarchy, such as the South American rugby championship or The Cup of Nations, IRB tournament for tear 2 teams. Usually participate in this tournament including teams like Portugal, Russia, Rumania, Georgia, Namibia and sometimes South Africa B.
The sudamerican Championship is an annual tournament played by teams of South America. But because the skill difference between Argentina and the rest of South America, Argentina played with a team B (Los Jaguares). As data is worth mentioning that the tournament was played in 33 editions, and Argentina won 32. Uruguay won a year because Argentina did not come to play this year. LOL. As you can see isn't a challenge for Argentina.
But another thing I would like to mention and that was not mentioned in this thread, is that this year Argentina has hired Graham Henry to help us in the tournament. This is a great effort by the UAR because UAR has a small budget compared to the other tier 1 countries. I think the hiring of Henry, is a very important and will greatly improve the quality of Los Pumas. As a curiosity, he is authorized to help Los Pumas when they play against South Africa and against Australia, but is banned to help when Los Pumas play against New Zealand. He will be an advisor, and will not be sitting on the bench.

Argie,

Before being invited to the Quad-Nations, there was talk of inviting Argentina (based in Spain) to the 6Ns before Italy was introduced.

Did you hear of that and how was it received?

I could definitely see Argentina winning a few games. How often do Aus, NZ and SA make the trip to South America for a game of rugger? I think the fans will be out in force and the desire to win will be high. Argentina play a very difficult style of rugby too, they're one of those teams no one likes to play as you know it's going to be a battle. I think they'll win one or two home games against any of the other SH teams.