0
Pumas have to wait: NZRU
Marc Hinton | December 4, 2007 - 11:46AM
Don't hold your breath for the arrival of Argentina to inject some much-needed life into a stagnating Tri Nations rugby competition.
Despite the IRB's highly-touted rubber-stamp of approval for the Pumas to join the southern hemisphere's elite test competition at last week's historic forum on the global season, the reality is that the strings that came attached with the green light could see Argentina more than a decade from readiness.
This was a point that New Zealand Rugby Union deputy chief executive Steve Tew appeared to confirm when he spoke about the Pumas situation after returning from the gathering in Woking that attracted 90 of the game's key international stakeholders.
"We certainly believe there is some potential for them to be involved in the Tr -Nations at some stage," Tew told New Zealand's Radio Sport. "But there is obviously a bit to be done before then."
That's an understatement. The IRB has instituted a four-year plan which it optimistically hopes will help pave the way for Argentina to set up its own professional rugby competition. And there is no mistaking the positivity of the international body on their behalf.
But the reality is for that country, with the state of its domestic rugby, to establish professional rugby at the sort of level that is going to retain elite players in South America rather than see them head en masse to France and England as they do now, is going to take much, much longer. Regardless of how much goodwill and positive intent there is from the IRB paymasters.
The problem is that as it is now it is virtually impossible for Argentina to play in the Tri Nations, even with the increasing goodwill that appears to exist at the higher levels these days.
With all of the Pumas either in France or the UK, they would have to play the Tri-Nations in their off-seasons. And that is an impossibility, both in terms of player wellbeing, but also in respect to a standard agreed in Woking where a 10-week break between seasons is mandatory.
Tew conceded the intermediate step could have been to have the Pumas playing in the Six Nations until their player base situation changed, but there had been a clear mandate at the forum from the northern hemisphere countries that this was not going to happen.
So it appears that until such a time as Argentina can retain its players on home soil -- estimated to take 10 to 12 years at the least, most experts reckon -- the Pumas are going to have to make do with an enlarged international programme also rubber-stamped by the IRB.
To that end there has at least been some immediate movement. The Pumas are to play four tests in the June window (instead of three now), three in the November window and two during the European Six Nations window. That follows agreement from the French and English clubs that players will be released during the Six Nations window for the next three years.
But, as Tew told Radio Sport, the situation back at home is still less than favourable for the Pumas.
"There has been IRB funding available to Argentina for some time, but the trick has been getting Argentina into a position where they can wisely spend that money because the domestic game hasn't been in great shape.
"What we wisely spent a lot of time talking about was how do we in the short term recognise the performance of Argentina, and enable them to play international rugby with the facts on the table that all of their players make a living in either France or England. That's quite tricky."
Tew said the commitments from the clubs of England and France to release players for 11 tests a year would help, as would the fact that clubs seasons in those countries will now be timed to end by May 31.
But he indicated that Argentina remained a long way from Tri Nations entry when he added: "One of the things we were involved in was a workshop on what does the game look like in 2020. It's quite possible by then there will be an American league of some sort and Argentina might be better off playing in that in the first instance."
And if that sounds like wishful thinking, that's probably because it is.
Argentina is clearly world rugby's problem, because right now they deserve to play in a competition somewhere.
It's just that despite all the goodwill in the world, and a fair bit of IRB dosh ready to be thrown their way, it remains a problematic task.
The disappointing aspect of the global forum was that more progress wasn't made towards an integrated international season, as much of the rhetoric beforehand had been about.
Instead there was confirmation that June and November would remain the windows when the two hemispheres met, with assurances from the north that they would send stronger teams south than they had in previous years. There was also a vague intention to stage some sort of a global competition, but nothing concrete set in place.
Still, Tew was adamant it had been a worthwhile meeting, despite the lack of hard and fast solutions. "There was more achieved at this meeting than most people anticipated... having that diverse a group of people in one room debating the future of the game very robustly for up to 36 hours was very fruitful and very worthwhile."
Reply With Quote
when the main culprit for Argentina's lack of inclusion down here is the power of the clubs in Europe; I'm sure if the Pumas were at full strength they'd be getting fast-tracked rather than "trialled." (What an insult to a bronze medal winning team.)
