The alarming slide of Argentina - why has it gone so wrong
Head coach Daniel Hourcade is on his way out after Saturday’s match with Scotland. With the Rugby Championship just months away and a World Cup on the horizon Argentina are in a mess. Just how has it gone so wrong for the 2015 World Cup semi-finalists.
At the 2007 World Cup the rugby public sat up and took notice as Argentina shocked hosts and Six Nations champions France 17-12 in the tournament opener and beat highly-fancied Ireland 30-15, to finish top of their pool. Their team featured a traditionally robust pack and a few backs to savour including the likes of Felipe Contepomi and the king of drop goals Juan Martin Hernandez. It was a side which went on to claim third place at the tournament.
The goal at the time was admission to the Six Nations, a tournament which would suit the Argentine game, coupled with the fact that most of their players played in the Northern Hemisphere, it was the perfect match. A few weeks after the World Cup had finished, in November 2007, they formally applied to join the Six Nations. By the end of that same month the International Rugby Board (now World Rugby) extinguished that hope with a statement: “’The forum agreed that the Pumas’ future lies in the southern hemisphere. In the short term there are major hurdles to the integration of Argentina into the southern playing structure. However, the Argentinian Rugby Union (UAR) have made a commitment to have their players contracted to the union and for the majority of their players to be based in Argentina by 2012”.
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After years of chasing the Six Nations dream, a complete change of tack was needed. Trying to entice home players who were on lucrative contracts wasn’t going to be easy or happen overnight. Their cause wasn’t helped by SANZAR, who in April 2010 agreed a five-year deal for Super Rugby from 2011 to 2015. It meant that the earliest an Argentine club side could enter the competition would be 2016. So with no domestic league of note to bring back players to in the interim, they were left in no-man’s land by the body which could and should have done more. SANZAR hadn’t completely cut Argentina adrift, the Tri-Nations was expanded to the Rugby Championship, but it was not a consolidated plan by SANZAR to integrate, both club and country.
So with players still based in the Northern Hemisphere Argentina trudged on regardless, admission to the Rugby Championship came in 2012. It was the beginning of the end of traditional Argentine rugby, the decision to adjust their game to the Southern Hemisphere style was made. In came Daniel Hourcade in 2013 to implement this. By the 2015 World Cup all seemed to be rosy, I witnessed first-hand the new brand of rugby, as Los Pumas dismantled Ireland in the quarter-finals at the Millennium Stadium, winning 43-20. They ran out of steam against Australia in the semi-finals, but they could go home pleased with their efforts, but it’s been downhill, and fast, since.
In the last two Rugby Championship’s Argentina have won just one match, in 2016 they beat South Africa 26-24 and slumped to five defeats, in 2017 it was a whitewash, six losses. They trudged up to Europe for the November internationals and I asked Hourcade whether Argentina had the toughest schedule of any other international side.
“That’s probably one of the biggest problems we have. Last season we travelled 186,000km so probably four times around the world. We’re used to that and it is our reality. We want the competition to play week-by-week and that is what we want and we are really happy about that. We have only just started, two seasons, and we only have 34 professional players,” he said.
“Our problem is not the amount of players we have, it’s the competition we have. We only have one tournament with one team so few players can develop at the top level. We would be better to be in the northern hemisphere but we are not allowed be there.”
“We need three or four teams [laughs].”
But it remains just a single team and it’s unlikely to change anytime soon, particularly with Super Rugby culling sides of late, from South Africa and Australia. Despite Argentina being solely reliant on one team to provide them with their players, there were signs of encouragement this season. The Jaguares, under new head coach Mario Ledesma, are a respectable seventh in the Super Rugby table with eight wins and five defeats from their thirteen matches so far and are currently on a six-match unbeaten run.
But ultimately when you are relying on a mid-table Super Rugby team to form the basis of your international side, it will have repercussions, it’s a step up and it’s a different style of play, particularly playing against Northern Hemisphere sides. Despite the Jaguares recent form in Super Rugby the national team have had a chastening June, beaten 2-0 at home by an under-strength Wales, their first series loss to the Welsh since 1999. The performance in 30-12 second Test reverse was so insipid that Hourcade fell on his sword.
“We (Hourcade and his assistants) think that the message is no longer getting through to the team, we’ve reached the end of a cycle. We assume the responsibility of making this decision, having already mentioned the possibility… before the June Tests”, the 60-year-old said.
Hourcade’s last game will come on Saturday against Scotland, once again his entire 23-man squad are Jaguares players.
So what can change, not much really and that is the concerning part. The amount of travel their players face both through Super Rugby and internationally cannot be altered. The one factor the UAR can modify is their selection policy, currently only South Hemisphere based players are allowed to play for the national team. It is a catastrophic waste to see the likes of Toulon’s Facundo Isa and Racing 92’s Juan Imhoff not being eligible for selection.
The recently-elected UAR President Marcelo Rodriguez is certainly looking at the issue, “It is one of the measures that I will promote in my administration. It’s something that will then have to be discussed and approved through the Council, but I firmly believe that the Pumas have to play the best.”
Since reaching the 2015 World Cup semi’s Argentina have lost 21 of their last 27 games. 2017 saw jut two wins and 10 defeats. 2018 is not looking at all promising either, another Rugby Championship whitewash could be on the cards, with improvements from South Africa and Australia visible in June. Los Pumas been thrown into a tough pool at the 2019 World Cup too, alongside England, France, USA and Tonga. It’s hard to be upbeat if you’re an Argentina supporter.
Comments on RugbyPass
Are the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
2 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
2 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to comments