Argentina, the wandering minstrels of world rugby, are starting to find their groove

At the Aviva Stadium last night, the two most successful adherents in world rugby of exclusively home-based teams showcased their very similar systems. Neither Ireland nor New Zealand countenance incorporating players based abroad. In part to ensure the strength of their provinces and regions, both believe in the sanctity of drawing entirely from them. Next Friday’s visitors, Argentina, are somewhat different.
Whereas South Africa, Scotland, Australia, Italy and Wales try to strike a balance, Los Pumas are the outliers who defy conventional thinking. They are the wandering minstrels of world rugby. The Argentinian motto is: go forth and make the best of yourselves.
Of the 35 Argentinian players Felipe Contepomi used in the Rugby Championship only two were home-based. Of the 32-man squad Contepomi has brought to Europe for their end-of-year tour, a dozen are based in France, nine in England and six in Italy, with one each in Ireland (Santiago Cordero) and the USA, while two are unattached. Only three are home-based and they have been included primarily so as to be exposed to, and gain experience of, the Pumas’ environment.
None of that trio is in the 23 for their end-of-year tour opener in Udine today against Italy who, of course, are coached by the prolific ex-Pumas outhalf Gonzalo Quesada. Argentina’s 23 features eight players apiece based in the Top 14 and the Premiership, three in Italy and one each from Ireland and the USA, as well as two unattached.
Yet despite this, Argentina regularly defy logic, and last year reached their third semi-final in the last four World Cups. Admittedly, as Contepomi freely admitted, that achievement flattered them a tad in that it did not make them one of the four best sides in the world, and he wasn’t saying this to give himself some elbow room on foot of succeeding Michael Cheika.
Argentina were the main beneficiaries of a lopsided draw and reached the last four by losing 27-10 to England before beating Chile, Samoa, Japan and Wales and then losing 44-6 to New Zealand.
On foot of being promoted to head coach, Contepomi added Bradley Mooar to his staff as attack coach, while retaining former Pumas Andrés Bordoy and legendary back-rower Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe as assistant coaches. Mooar has worked with the Crusaders, Scarlets, All Blacks and Scotland as an attack coach previously.
Contepomi also moved on some of the old guard, and, after a 28-13 defeat against France in Mendoza last July, they avenged that loss a week later by winning in Buenos Aires 33-25.
Contepomi then experimented in a 79-5 victory over Uruguay before Los Pumas enjoyed their best-ever Rugby Championship campaign. For the first time, they beat all three southern hemisphere heavyweights, the All Blacks (38-30 in Wellington in round one), Australia (by a record 67-27 win in Santa Fe in round four) and South Africa (by 29-28 at the grandly named Estadio Único Madre de Ciudades, a football stadium in the city of Santiago del Estero, in round five).
Admittedly, they couldn’t back up those performances against the All Blacks and the Springboks a week later, losing those games by 42-10 and 49-7, while the win over the Wallabies followed a rain-sodden 20-19 loss in La Plata.
But thus far, having served his time at Leinster and as assistant coach to Cheika, Contepomi is clearly doing a very good job.
“People are happy,” says the respected Buenos Aires-based rugby writer Frankie Deges. “The players are happy, which is always good. There has been some inconsistency but this year they have beaten France, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. What else can you ask?
“Felipe keeps saying it is a continuation of what Michael Cheika started. But he’s putting his own footprints on the team. On the technical side, I think they’re playing more adventurously,” says Deges.
Indeed, there had been a win away to Australia the year before in an abbreviated three-game Championship and a close affair with the Boks, while in 2022 there was a historic first win in New Zealand (albeit again followed by a hammering a week later) and a big win at home to Australia. But whereas Argentina scored 15 tries and conceded 25 in that six-game campaign, this year they scored 20 tries while conceding 24.
[ Joe Schmidt admits Australia ‘fell off a cliff’ in humiliating defeat to ArgentinaOpens in new window ]
That stunning nine-tries-to-three win over Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies may have been distorted by three tries in the last five minutes, as well as rumours of the Australian squad suffering an outbreak of food poisoning. But that 67-27 victory also marks the ascension to the outhalf role of Benetton’s Tomás Albornoz, who is more of an authentic number 10 than the multi-positioned and highly skilled Santiago Carreras.
“Carreras is a great player but Albornoz is a different kind of player,” Deges explains. “He is a fly-half, and he launches the team a lot better. They have a different flow.”
Although the Jaguares no longer exist in Super Rugby, Argentina do have two professional sides. The Pampas, based in Buenos Aires, and the Dogos XV, based in Cordoba, compete in the Super Rugby Americas along with one franchise each from Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay and USA, with the latter to be replaced by a third Argentinian side next year.
“That is also why Chile and Uruguay made it to the World Cup,” says Deges, and this has reaped benefits. “A number of the players who have come into the Pumas team in the last three or four years did play in the Argentinian franchises.
“Juan Martín González, the Saracens flanker, played in the franchises. Franco Molina, who signed for the Exeter Chiefs this year, captained the championship-winning side, Dogos XV, and actually played in Chile for a while when he couldn’t get a place in the Argentinian franchises.
“There is a new kid, Efraín Elías, who signed for the Toulouse Espoirs and made his senior debut for Toulouse two weeks ago and has already played for Argentina,” says Deges of the 20-year-old lock who captained the Argentinian Under-20s last year.
“He also played at Dogos XV so the pathway in Argentinian rugby is working. You go into the national academy, then you play Super Rugby Americas and then the higher you go, the sooner you leave for Europe. At the end of the day, the money that Super Rugby Americas can pay is not comparable to Europe. But it’s a pathway that’s proving successful and it helped get Chile and Uruguay to the World Cup.”
Argentinian rugby is thus bettering its neighbours as well as itself.
Carreras is resting a minor calf injury, and his brother Mateo, who has been an ever-present in all nine games this year and scored five tries, recently became a father, and has also been excused duty.
Ditto former captain Pablo Matera, hitherto an ever-present, after his red card in the final game against South Africa earned him a two-game suspension. Fellow flanker Marcos Kremer was injured in the win over the Springboks and is yet to play for Clermont this season.
Lock Tomás Lavanini has also been seemingly rested, while back-rowers Facundo Isa and Rodrigo Bruni have not played for Argentina since the World Cup, with the former taking a year off from international duty. Bruni and Bayonne team-mate Facundo Bosch are also absent while injury has ruled out goal-kicking winger Emiliano Boffelli for the year.
First-choice inside centre Santiago Chocobares is recovering from injury and the veteran Jerónimo de la Fuente has not been called up to replace him.
Even so, the return of Molina is the only change to the pack from their final game in the Rugby Championship, while the experienced scrumhalf Gonzalo Bertranou, winger Bautista Delguy, centres Matías Orlando and Lucio Cinti, as well as the brilliant Toulouse full-back Juan Cruz Mallía are all back today as well.
In all of this, Argentina have risen to sixth in the world rankings. They are the top tier’s biggest climbers in 2024. All of this makes them interesting, and exciting visitors to the Aviva next Friday.