Rugby column
By Frankie Deges
The announcement has not yet been formalized but it is certainly getting very close to the day when it is finally made public. Argentina will be formally accepted into the Four Nations and will start competing from 2012 against South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. The doors are set to upon for a regular competition.
Every year, from 2012, Los Pumas will play a home game against the Springboks, the All Blacks and the Wallabies. Mouth-watering prospect.
Some four weeks ago, during the USA Sevens in Las Vegas, a very high-ranking International Rugby Board official told me off-the-record: “it will happen. We are going to support the Argentine Rugby Union with more funding to pay for their inclusion in the Four Nations.”
He did not hesitate. “It will happen.”
The figure mentioned was close to the 2,2 million dollars that is being mentioned in dispatches from New Zealand, where the IRB had its Executive Committee meeting. This extra funding is to pay the other three nations for Los Pumas’ inclusion. This payment was something that whilst not mentioned when the UAR was conditionally invited last year — it was kept private — has been strongly criticized by this columnist as SANZAR’s petty stand. The IRB will now pick the tab and everybody is happy.
Yet to resolve is the availability of the top Argentine players that are based overseas and there are no clear indications of whether that will be favourably resolved before 2012. Some of the big stars will be too old to play after RWC 2011, not even wanting to stay a year on to play in the Four Nations. Others are too expensive.
Think of the likes of Martín Scelzo, Mario Ledesma, Felipe Contepomi — I doubt they will have it in them to go another full year after Rugby World Cup only to achieve their goal of playing Four Nations rugby. Argentina will be certainly needing the abilities of Juan Martín Hernández, Gonzalo Tiesi, Juan Leguizamón, even Patricio Albacete who by then will be in his 11th season of international rugby.
Availability is a problem as the Four Nations is set for a test window that coincides with European club rugby. Therein lies a key issue.
The UAR is dealing with the clubs individually and although not a clear how, a solution is also apparently being found.
Thanks to the promotion of new players in teams such as Los Pampas XV or the Jaguars, the next crop is starting to raise their hands. It is never the same and the High Performance plans requires of regular match activity to ensure players are ready to take that extra step.
If in the process, the UAR continues to lose players, then the problem widens. Martín Rodríguez, one of the players of 2009, has signed for French club Stade Français. After recovering from two career-threatening injuries, he bounced back to have a superb season.
He won’t be the last to leave, but if Four Nations is announced and packages presented to local players, then the exodus could lose momentum. Because, the Four Nations, “will happen.”