Pumas closer to Tri-Nations

[Burgs]

There are many questions that have and can be asked about including los Pumas into the Tri Nations. If that means we should include the Pacific Islands, time zones etc etc.
However, now is the time to give a very simple answer to a very complex question: Do you support Argentina being included in the Tri Nations?
Plenty of room in the thread to debate variables, but at least the poll will give some strong indication.

Pumas closer to Tri-Nations

By Wayne Smith
March 07, 2007

ARGENTINA's long-awaited entry to the southern hemisphere Tri-Nations series was given a significant boost yesterday, when the International Rugby Board voted to formally investigate the proposal.

The IRB and SANZAR (the organisers of the Tri-Nations series) for years have bandied the idea of pitting the Pumas against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in a competition on an annual basis, but the idea has taken on new urgency since Argentina surged to No.6 on the world rankings last year following victories over Wales, England and Italy.

Although that is the highest the Pumas have been on the IRB rankings, they could easily have gone higher, as they lost only 25-19 to world No.1 New Zealand in Buenos Aires and went within a point of toppling world No.2 France in Paris in November.

While the three Tri-Nations countries still are ahead of them, the Pumas officially rank ahead of Six Nations teams England, Wales, Italy and Scotland. It all made for an irrefutable argument when the IRB executive committee met yesterday in Auckland.

IRB secretary-general Mike Miller, in announcing a feasibility study, stressed the importance of finding regular competition for the only tier-one country that is not a member of either the Six Nations or Tri-Nations.

Miller acknowledge, however, that the IRB could not dictate to SANZAR on whether to admit Argentina,

"We have asked Argentina to do a business plan to show how they can grow the game there," Miller said.

The sticking points for an expanded Tri-Nations are the fact that rugby remains primarily an amateur game in Argentina, forcing the country's top 40 or so players to sign on with French or Italian clubs, and the fact the Union Argentina de Rugby is widely considered to be as much amateurish as it is amateur.

Miller said plans were afoot to establish an eight-team semi-professional South American competition involving six Argentine provinces as well as Chile and Uruguay, although the IRB executive committee did briefly discuss whether Argentina and Japan both might enter teams in an expanded Super 14 series.

The vexed, if intriguing, proposal for the game to move to a global integrated season also was discussed, with the IRB deciding to further explore three of nine proposals.

[frontrow]

Bring 'em on i say, i reckon they would be competitive and it would help promote and expand the game in Argentina, if they got half the support soccer has over there then it would be a hit...

[WF2006]

Maybe it'll give us a chance to win an away game or so!

Sorry for the negativity.................

[luke_the_pom]

just a question......

for the people who voted no, why??

[shasta]

Maybe it'll give us a chance to win an away game or so!

Sorry for the negativity.................

Errrrrrrrr....I'm glad you said "chance".

I sure wouldn't put any of my hard earned on the current Wallabies to win there. That bloody stadium is fair dinkum intimidating. Maybe not to the players but I wouldn't want to rely on most of the current ref's not being affected.

[RuckNMaul]

the more the merrier
but they couldnt realy call it the "tri" nations still
mabey it could be the southern nations or the southern hemisphere cup

[AndyS]

No. It is easy to say, but it means flights of 24+ hours and 14 hours time differences. I wonder how the players would be performing/feeling if the draw had them playing away to Argentina, NZ and SA in that order over 4 weeks. Someone will always get the rough end of the draw.

How is it that everyone sees this as viable, but including Japan and Canada in the NH comps isn't? At least they would have the benefit of direct flights.

[King Chili]

The difference is that Japan and Canada are no where near as strong as Argentina, and Argentina have got this strong without regular matches against other top 10 nations. Yes it would involve long flights, but no longer that currently undertaken by New Zealand going to South Africa, and SA going to NZ. If the IRB are serious about developing rugby they will do everything they can to get Argentina into the tri nations.

If the lenght of the flights really was an issue I would suggest that the AB's play them in South Africa a week after the SA v NZ game, Australia play them in New Zealand a week after the NZ v Aus game, and South Africa play them in Australia a week after the Aus v SA game with all these counting as Argentinas home fixtures, along with the playing SA in SA, NZ in NZ, and Aus in Aus for their away games. If this was laid down as a condition of entry into the competition for the first 10 years or so, I am sure the Argies would accept.

[jazza93]

i said no becasue it would make to much travel and make the comp heaps longer. i rekon we will just thrash argentina anyway so its a waste of time. imagine new zealand vs them nz would smash them

[King Chili]

NZ did play them recently, and only beat them by about 7 points. To be fair though they probably would get regularly beaten to start off with, but the only way for them to get better is to regularly play against the likes of NZ, SA and Australia. It would also massivly raise the profile of the game in Argentina which would help in their development as a team aswell.


As for making the comp heaps longer, if you got rid of this nonsense of playing each team 3 times and brought it back to 2 times, then there would be the same number of games for each team as there was in 2006.

[chook]

I saw that AB v Argie game (got it on me HDD) many normal ABs were missing and they played it in abysmal conditions. ABs were a bit lax but did what they had to do to win. Leave the 3N as it is and intruduce the Argies to the pacific championship. Or Let them play in the 6N (7N) as most of the Tinian players are in Europe anyway.

[King Chili]

The distances involved in an expanded 7N would make no sense at all. Letting them into the trinations is the way forward

[chook]

Nah, they use planes and stuff these days so that probably wont be an issue. Unless they are scared of planes in which case a train would take a bloody long time.

[MysticBalls]

Yeah bring them in for Southern 4 Nations, with Argentina touring first west to east with prevailing winds makes journey bit shorter. Then from NZ they can fly direct from Auckland to Buenos Aires over Sth pole. No problems except for stray chooks flying 'high' at altitude. Do it 5-10 years then logistically weigh up the S16 option.

[RuckNMaul]

see in america they are trying to get a super 20 going

http://americanrugbynews.com/2007/03...y-world-series