Argentina Squad for June

Santiago ´Tati´ Phelan

The UAR´s announcement of the first senior squad for 2012 took place yesterday afternoon. It was highlighted by the inclusion of the veteran pair of loosehead prop Rodrigo Roncero and flyhalf and captain Felipe Contepomi, veterans of four Rugby World Cup´s. Both players are not going to be playing for their country after 2012. Their selection, however, was more about experience than anything else as Santiago Phelan named a squad than can be described as nothing other than under strength. Phelan has rested World Cup players with Contepomi and Roncero only being joined by Julio Farías Cabello, Genaro Fessia, Agustín Gozio and Leonardo Senatore to give Los Pumas just six players from the squad that competed at Rugby World Cup 2011.
     
In place of the European professionals, Phelan has taken the bold step of naming 16 players from Los Pampas XV. No players from the play-offs of the Top 14 and the Aviva Premiership have been included which would appear to reflect the negotiations between the UAR and European clubs to not over play players. It also creates a problem, however, with players participating in The Rugby Championship sseemingly entering the international season without playing other tests. Martín Bustos Moyano, for instance remains a strong contender to be Argentina´s starting winger despite only having ever played one international four years ago. While he has been let out due to the Top 14 barrage, Phelan has gone for Top 14 players from Agen, Biarritz, Brive and Stade Français as well as Aviva Premiership players from Exeter, the Harlequins and Sale. The most notable inclusion being Ignacio Mieres who had a tremendous season at flyhalf for Exeter seeing the club qualify for the 2012-2013 Heineken Cup. He now looks set to form a 10-12 combination with Felipe Contepomi and is likely to also be the goalkicker. The pair are likely to be backed up by Benjamin Urdapilleta who played in the centre for the Harlequins over the past two seasons.

But, not all players from outside the leading Top 14 sides have been selected. While Contepomi is in there is no Marcelo Bosch or Martín Rodríguez Gurruchaga with the World Cup pair both being rested ahead of The Rugby Championship. Neither Biarritz not Stade Français will compete in the Top 14 play-offs which suggests firmly that the June internationals should indeed be the end of the road for Contepomi who is set to pass the torch. Of course, Phelan could very well make changes during June to field an entirely different team for the French tests. However, neither Italy nor France will be at full strength, suggesting that the squad Phelan has named is actually not as weak as it may appear to be. To the contrary, the June tests are going to be far from what they could be.

Curiously there is no place in the squad for Brive scrumhalf Agustín Figuerola, Bordeaux winger Rafael Carballo or Agen centre Miguel Avramovic. The non-selection of these players appears to suggest that their international careers are over with Phelan opting to give high-performance players a chance to shine with the impressive Tomás Cubelli likely to be the starting scrumhalf and both Gabriel Ascárate and Matías Orlando picked ahead of Avramovic. The make up of the squad also suggests that Los Pampas XV captain, Julio Farías Cabello is now considered a secondrower rather than a backrower. He should start in the number 4 shirt. 

Suggested XV to face Italy:
15 Joaquín Tuculet
14 Belisario Agulla
13 Agustín Gozio
12 Felipe Contepomi
11 Manuel Montero
10 Ignacio Mieres
9 Tomás Cubelli
8 Leonardo Senatore
7 Tomás de la Vega
6 Tomás Leonardi
5 Santiago Guzmán
4 Julio Farías Cabello
3 Francisco Gómez Kodela
2 Andrés Bordoy
1 Rodrigo Roncero

Bench: 16 Bruno Postiglioni, 17 Francisco Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 18 Rodrigo Baez, 19 Genaro Fessia, 20 Martín Landajo, 21 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 22 Gabriel Ascárate

The clash vs Italy will take place in San Juan on Saturday June 09 and will  be followed by two matches against France on the two subsequent Saturday´s. The first taking place in Córdoba and the second in Tucumán. 

29 Man Pumas Squad

Belisario Agulla (Agen, France)
Gabriel Ascárate (Los Pampas XV)
Rodrigo Báez (Los Pampas XV)
Facundo Barrea (Los Pampas XV)
Andrés Bordoy (Pau, France)
Rodrigo Bruno (Los Pampas XV)
Felipe Contepomi (Stade Français, France)
Tomás Cubelli (Los Pampas XV)

Tomás de la Vega (Los Pampas XV)
Julio Farías Cabello (Los Pampas XV)
Genaro Fessia (Los Pampas XV)
Francisco Gómez Kodela (Biarritz, France)
Agustín Gozio (London Scottish, England)
Eusebio Guiñazú (Biarritz, France)

Santiago Guzmán (Los Pampas XV)

Pablo Henn (Brive, France)

Martín Landajo (Los Pampas XV)

Tomás Leonardi (Los Pampas XV)

Benjamin Macome (Los Pampas XV)

Ignacio Mieres (Exeter Chiefs, England)

Román Miralles (Los Pampas XV)

Manuel Montero (Los Pampas XV)

Matías Orlando (Los Pampas XV)

Bruno Postiglioni (Los Pampas XV)

Rodrigo Roncero (Stade Français, France)

Leonardo Senatore (Los Pampas XV)

Francisco Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro (Stade Français, France)

Joaquín Tuculet (Sale Sharks, England)
 Benjamin Urdapilleta  (Harlequins, England)

Argentina is a Tier One Regional Model

Scotland 15-6 Georgia, RWC 2011
Close game yet a rare fixture

In rugby international competition is divided into three categories. Known as tiers they are used to establish a basis for present and future ability, setting a platform for sides to know where they lie and just how much work they need to do to advance to a superior tier and also not fall down to an inferior tier. The IRB World Rankings has ninety-six nations but the top two tiers account for only the top eighteen sides. Of the sides considered as being the Top Two Tiers all except Georgia have competed at every Rugby World Cup since it was expanded from sixteen to twenty teams in 1999. The First Tier consists of ten sides - Australia, Argentina, England, France, Ireland, Italy,  New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa and Wales. The same teams account for all places in the Six Nations Championship and The Rugby Championship. The Second Tier consists of eight sides - Canada, Fiji, Georgia, Japan, Romania, Samoa, Tonga and the United States of America. In New Zealand 2011 these eighteen sides were joined by Namibia and Russia. As expected, no Tier Two side made the Quarter Finals of the tournament and neither Namibia nor Russia won a match which goes to show the tiers´ are a good reflection of the global rugby order. 

Despite the tiers not being geographically organized at all the IRB and Rugby World Cup Limited operate on a regional structure which in the case of  Namibia, for instance, has seen the African nation qualify for the past four World Cup´s, despite never having come close to winning a World Cup match. Namibia, a Tier Three nation, has been Africa´s best for the past twelve years but has only participated at World Cup´s due to Africa being given a direct qualifying spot. This controversy highlights the failures of the global rugby authorities to create a fair system for all in that African Tier Three sides have a massive advantage over all Tier Three nations from all other regions - Asia, Europe, Oceania and the Americas. While Namibia qualified after defeating no teams from Rugby World Cup 1999, 2003 or 2007 Russia qualified after defeating teams from each of these World Cup´s - Portugal, Romania and Spain. The Europeans happened to also have significantly higher placings in the IRB World Rankings than the sides Namibia played against. 

While Namibia has been the big winner in this, the biggest loser has been South America as it is the only continent which is not allocated World Cup qualification to the team which finishes first in qualification matches. The unjust system has the South American winner face the North American runner up with the winner of that qualifying for the World Cup as Americas 2. This ignores the Tier structure since North America has two sides from the second tier but South America doesn´t have any. Having Uruguay win the South American qualification series and then face Tier two sides while Namibia qualify automatically after only facing tier three sides is unjustifiable and simply odd. Seemingly, Uruguay´s two World Cup wins from seven matches has been entirely discredited. Curiously, the side that Uruguay defeated in Rugby World Cup 2003, Georgia, has gone on to now be a Tier Two side.

Chile vs Brazil, May 2012.
Argentina face both also in May 2012

Despite the IRB not doing good enough for the Americas, Argentina remains a regional leader. There is little to suggest that teams are closing the gap on Argentina. To the contrary, Los Pumas are a permanent tier one side that continues to match it against the best. Without its professional players, Argentina is still far too strong for the others in South America, as demonstrated yesterday with a 40-5 win over Uruguay. Such matches do little for Argentine rugby but are crucial to the growth of the likes of Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. Argentina´s annual participation in the South American Championship (CONSUR A) gives potential Pumas of the future a chance but, more importantly, acts as a measuring stick for Argentina´s opponents, all of which are Tier Three rugby nations. Of the nine other Tier One sides no team plays in an annual  regional competition comparable to the South American Championship. There is no Oceania Cup involving Australia , New Zealand and the three Tier Two sides of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. Nor is there an African Cup involving South Africa and other teams from the continent. Europe, similarly, has no competition featuring the Six Nations sides and the emerging nations. Last years World Cup saw Scotland defeating Georgia 15-6. The Tier One side failed to score a try. Yet there is no international competition between the sides at all and the match was, amazingly, the first ever between the two nations.

The reason for no regional competitions is not the differing abilities, if it were then World Cup´s would only feature Tier One sides. The First Tier simply have no interest in such matches taking place due to the financial costs involved. Aside from Argentina facing its South American counterparts in the CONSUR A tournament the only comparable example is Asia which has Japan (Tier Two) competiting in the Asian Five Nations which sees the Japanese face the next four best Asian sides - currently Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates. Japan is Asia´s only non-Tier Three rugby nation and has competed at every World Cup. When Japan host Rugby World Cup 2019 it will be representing Asia and Argentina stands out as a regional leader for similar reasons. The South American Championship is a key part of developing the global game and it further underlines what Argentina has to offer as a World Cup host.

France vs Los Pumas confirmed for Lille

Earlier today it was announced by French rugby sources that the venue for November´ test match between France and Argentina will be the first ever rugby test at the brand new Grand Stade Lilld Métropole in Lille. The state of the art stadium is to have a capacity of 50,000 fans for soccer and rugby matches. It is being constructed as an official venue for Euro 2016 which will be hosted by France. The city is no stranger to international rugby but it has been over twenty years since a test was last played in Lille. The match will be played on November 17 in the Northern French city. It is to be the second test of the month for both teams with Argentina playing Wales in Cardiff seven days earlier and France facing Australia in Paris also on November 10th.

The last match in Lille saw New Zealand playing Canada in a 1991 World Cup Quarter Final and as such the city did not host matches during Rugby World Cup 2007, with neighbouring Lens hosting instead despite being a significantly smaller city. The match was played at the Stadium Nord Lille Métropole which has a capacity of just over 18,000. That stadium played host to four tests in total between 1986 and 1991. One of the matches was France vs Argentina with les Bleus winning 28-18 in 1988. The return to Lille will be the third match between the Latin rivals in 2012 after they will have faced each other in Córdoba and Tucumán in June. 

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Martín Durand try vs France in 2004

Martín Durand

Former Argentine international backrower, Martín Durand was a small player for a forward but was well rounded with the techniques of the position. He stood at 1,81metres tall and weighed in at 96KG in his final year of international rugby. Durand was a long time serving player for his country, playing 60 tests in an international career that lasted eleven years and included two World Cup´s, 2003 and 2007. He made his test debut in 2007 vs Chile and was a try scorer. In total he scored nine tries for Argentina with possibly his try vs France in 2004 being the highlight. It was the first time that France had ever been defeated in a rugby match in the city. It was a key victory for Argentine rugby as captain, Agustín Pichot, famously called for the world to take notice, making reference to Los Pumas´lack of interational competition as the only Tier One side without a regluar competition, i.e. not a part of the Tri Nations or Six Nations Championships. 

In defeating France, Durand went over for the first try after Argentina´s frontrow which was comprized of Rodrigo Roncero, Mario Ledesma and Omar Hasan, had destoryed France´s scrum. Los Pumas won a tighthead from a French put-in five metres from the try line. With the scrum twisting French scrumhalf, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde was unable to secure the looseball and Durand went over for the try. Argentina won the match 24-14. Durant was also a try scorer in the 25-19 loss to New Zealand in 2006. Durand was also a professional player for four years, playing in the French Top 14 for Montpellier from 2003-2007. 

Preview France-Argentine 3 por Ju-for-rugbys

Top 14 - Round 21 Wrap

Patricio Albacete

Bordeaux-Begles 18-17 Toulouse

The Stade Chaban-Delmas has hosted Rugby World Cup matches, French internationals, Top 14 play-off´s and, on occassion, regular season matches. With Bordeaux-Begels winning promotion from the Pro d2 this season the venue has been used even more and has delivered some shocking results, such as a win over Stade Français earler this season. Nobody, however, could have predicted a win over reigning champions and tournament leaders, Toulouse. The team expected to finish last defeated the number one seed by a single point to make it all that much more harder for the relegated threatened teams. Rafael Carballo played the final 18 minutes for Bordeaux-Begles with the team still without flyhalf Nicolás Sánchez due to injury. A contender to captain Argentina, Patricio Albacete played the full match for the visitors while scrumhalf Nicolás Vergallo was unused from Toulouse´s bench.

Castres 27-18 Montpellier

M.B Moyano and L.G Amorosino

Castres´ home win sees the team go back ahead of Montpellier in the standings. The Scotland of French rugby again counted on goalkicking to win it the match as both teams went in for two tries each. Montpellier´s first try was scored by the in-form Lucas González Amorosino who surely has a mortgage on the Pumas 15 shirt. He was joined in the startign lineup by three other Argentine internationals with Martín Bustos Moyano playing on the left wing and scoring eight points, all in the secondhalf. Pumas World Cup flyhalf, Santiago Fernández continues to play at outside centre with François Trinh-Duc pulling the strings from flyhalf. In good news for Los Pumas, Agustín Creevy continues to get through a mountain of work at hooker and Juan Figallo started alongside him in the frontrow. A sixth Argentine player, Maximilano Bustos played the final 16 minutes for Montpellier. Uruguay´s Rodrigo Capó Ortega did not play for Castres. 

Lyon 17-34 Biarritz

Taku Ngwenya

Bottom places Lyon had a home match vs the former bottom of the table Biarritz but failed to put in a performance that could help save the team from the seemingly guaranteed relegation back to the second division. The scores had been tied at 10-10 at the interval before French internationals Dimitri Yachvili and Imanol Harinordoquey turned it on in the secondhalf. Both were try scoreres as was the USA´s Taku Ngwenya who went over for Biarritz in the 26th minute. Young Francisco Gomez Kodela started at tighthead prop while Los Pumas´ World Cup secondrower Manuel Carizza and former international frontrower Eusebio Guiñazú both joined the match from the bench in the secondhalf for the Basque side. Outside centre Marcelo Bosch was rested due to a minor injury but his Pumas World Cup teammate, Juan Manuel Leguizamón played the full 80 minutes for Lyon. 

Clermont Auvergne 29-23 Perpignan

Jamie Cudmore

The home fortress that is the Stade Marcel-Michelin saw another victim as Clermont´s run approaches 40 consecutive home wins. Perpignan´s loss piles on the pressure for the 2009 French Champions as the club faces the real prospect of being relegated to the Pro d2.  With Bayonne winning at home over Brive, perpignan are now only one point outside of the relegation zone. If the club cannot find a way to string some wins together it could indeed find itself in 13th position quickly. With Toulouse losing, Clermont are now just one point behind the leaders in the standings. Canada´s Jamie Cudmore started for Clermont in the secondrow .  

Stade Français 53-27 Agen

Felipe Contepomi

Stade Français´quality performance all but guarantees the club a return to the play-offs and the Heineken Cup. The massive home win was orchestrated by Felipe Contepomi with the Pumas skipper returning to form to score two tries and score a total of 26 points. He again formed a 10-12 combination with fellow Puma, Martín Rodriguez Gurruchaga who also kicked one conversion. The Argentine-Italian, Sergio Parisse was also a try scorer and was joined in the starting pack with Rodrigo Roncero at loosehead prop while the USA Eagles´ World Cup secondrower, Scott LaValla was on the bench for the Parisians. Of Agen´s three Argentine players, one started and scored the first of the teams three tries. The competition for a place in Los Pumas is tough but Belisario Agulla may well be in consideration for national honors this year, particularly with players from the Top Six French clubs likely to miss the match vs Italy in San Juan. 

Toulon 32-20 Racing Metro

Juan Martín Hernández

Former English flyhalf, Jonny Wilkinson kicked 22 points as Toulon came from behind to complete a solid win over Racing Métro. The Parisians had been leading 20-19 at the interval but were unable to score any points in the secondhalf. With Contepomi on form there is no guarantee that a fully fit and ready Juan Martín Hernández will   start for Los Pumas in the 10 shirt. El Mago played the full match vs Toulon at flyhalf and created opportunities he was joined by three other Pumas players with the speedy Juan Imhoff playing on the left wing. Both prop Juan Orlandi and backrower Alvaro Galindo featured as secondhalf replacements while the Argentine-Italian secondrower, Santiago Dellapé started in the secondrow. Leonardo Senatore was unused by Toulon while Juan Fernández Lobbe is yet to play all season following his World Cup ending knee injury suffered vs Scotland. 

Bayonne 19-12 Brive

Agustín Figuerola

Lyon are still in with a chance of staying in the Top 14 Orange next season but the clubs chances of surviving are increasingly looking unlikely as the other relegation threatened teams are fighting it out hard to stay above 13th position. Bayonne´s win vs Brive was not enough to get the club outside of the relegation zone but it means both Perpignan and Brive can be caught and overtaken with one more victory. Like all other matches this weekend in France, players from the Americas were on show. Brive had Agustín Figuerola starting again at scrumhalf as he continues his push for Argentina´s 9 shirt held by Nicolás Vergallo who Toulouse are giving very little game time to him. Former Los Pumas frontrower, Pablo Henn joined Figuerola in the starting lineup for Brive. Both players were replaced in the secondhalf. Star winger Yoann Huget is set to leave the club for Toulouse which means that even if the club survives relegation it has some massive recruitment to do and it needs to be done smartly. 

Bordeaux vs Toulouse


Lyon vs Biarritz


Toulon vs Racing Métro


Clermont vs Perpignan

Résumé du match ASM vs USAP - Mars 2012 por USAP_Communication

Bayonne vs Brive


Top 14 Orange Standings
1 Toulouse 74 
2 Clermont 73
3 Toulon 62
4 Castres 55
5 Montpellier 52
6 Stade Français 52
7 Racing Métro 49
8 Agen 44
9 Bordeaux 41
10 Biarritz 38
11 Brive 37
12 Perpignan 35
13 Bayonne 34
14 Lyon 26

* Currently would qualify for play-off´s and 2012-2013 Heineken Cup
* Currently facing relegation

IRB World Rankings June Implications

Canada celebrate beating Tonga. Could Canada make the Top Ten?

Following the completion of Europe´s premier international competition, the Six Nations the IRB World Rankings of its participants tell a tale of two cities. There is a clear split between the top four and the bottom two. Champions Wales were undefeated and deserved the title but the teams wins over England and France were Ireland were by small margins and all could have been loses. Results against Italy and Scotland were clearer with bigger wins not only from Wales but from the other three teams. It is a continuation of a long term trend in which Scotland have been falling behind while Ireland and Wales have been eliminating the gap between themselves and that of England and Scotland. Italy, in contrast to Scotland, have been improving and the evidence on the international stage as well as within Italian rugby seems to underline the progress of the sport in the country. Scotland, like Italy, are seemingly now a far different prospect at home than in away matches. While the other four are able to perform well home and away.

Could the USA topple Italy in 2012?

The IRB World Rankings have neither Italy nor Scotland in the World´s Top Ten. Both teams are in fact ranked much closer to Canada than they are to Argentina. Canada ranked 13th in the world with Italy and Scotland in 11th and 12th. The points difference sees Canada less than one point behind Scotland and less than two behind Italy. Scotland are more than six points behind Argentina. The European team ranked closed to both Italy and Scotland (besides eachother) is not a Six Nations participant, but rather, Georgia. Similar to Argentina entering The Rugby Championship, Georgia needs to be integrated into the Six Nations. One thing that the current shape of the World Rankings does show is that the June 2012 tours are set up well with Italy to play Argentina in San Juan, the USA in Houston and Canada in Toronto. Scotland will face Australia, Fiji and Samoa. But these tours are not common, rather a rare thing. Scotland will also host Tonga in November, giving it a good chance of rising in rankings. 

Rupeni Caucau vs Scotland in 2003

Should Scotland end the year outside of the Top Ten then Georgia´s case for a place in the Six Nations would be greatly amplified. The matches against Tier Two sides will enable them to pick up IRB Rankings points, especially because the teams they will face are ranked closely. The lowest ranked side that Scotland will face is Fiji in 17th, the same team that ran riot vs the Scot´s at Rugby World Cup 2003 with Rupeni Caucau breaking the line at will. It took the boot of Chris Paterson to rescue Scotland that day. He has now gone to retirement, however, and Scotland´s goalkicking has suffered. Fiji and Samoa will be no easy games for the Scot´s and it could see the Scot´s appear more like a Tier Two than a Tier One side. Italy, in contrast,  have a tough first match in San Juan and then head north to Toronto and Houston. If Italy´s ambition is to be ranked as highly as possible than Jacques Brunel may well opt to field his strongest team in North America, especially given the schedule of facing Canada on Friday evening, having played Argentina on the previous Saturday some 8,380KM away. 

Both Canada and the USA will also play host to Georgia. Any slip ups from either Scotland or Italy would therefore sink the sides lower than their present rankings. Should Canada replicate the form it showed at Rugby World Cup 2011 it could well win all four tests this June. Such a scenario would see the Canadians move towards the Top Ten and if Scotland fail to win in Fiji and Samoa then Canada could be ranked even higher. The USA´s position of 17th could also change greatly. Should the USA Eagles have success in June then it will rise and further put into dispute the IRB´s distribution of qualification places for Rugby World Cup 2015. The USA is ranked behind all of its opponents for the June internationals which means that wins will be more significant for the Eagles than the Canadians. Curiously, the USA is ranked closer to Chile than it is to Canada. This is a sign of the lack of matches the USA has against lower ranked sides. The opposite is true of Namibia, which explains the Africans position in World Rankings.

The World´s Top 25 also features five countries from the Americas. In other words the Americas make up for 20% of the World´s top 25 teams. Three come from South America and two from North America. South America is the only region to not have automatic qualification granted to the winner of its phase of World Cup qualification. Not only does it go against performances at World Cup´s but it also goes against World Rankings. Rather than solving the issue of African participants, other than South Africa struggling, the IRB opted to continue giving Africa an automatic place with Africa one going directly to in Rugby World Cup 2015 while South America 1 will have to face North America 1 and the loser enter repercharge. The IRB, whether intentional or not, continues to fail to address its special treatment of gifting Africa 1 a place at World Cups. Unlike other regions, it is not a system based on merit. Japan, for instance, are clearly a team who should always be at World Cup´s despite not having won many matches. Both the USA and Canada have won more as has Uruguay yet Namibia has played 24 for zero wins, sits behind Spain in World Rankings and does not have a good record against sides from outside of Africa. 

Current IRB World Rankings

1(1)	New Zealand	91.43
2(2)	Australia	87.99
3(3)	South Africa	84.34
4(4)	England	83.62
5(5)	Wales	83.32
6(6)	France	81.91
7(8)	Argentina	80.28
8(7)	Ireland	79.85
9(9)	Tonga	76.63
10(10)	Samoa	75.81
11(12)	Italy	74.17
12(11)	Scotland	73.86
13(13)	Canada	72.92
14(14)	Japan	70.45
15(15)	Georgia	70.26
16(16)	Fiji	68.78
17(17)	United States	65.63
18(18)	Romania	63.81
19(19)	Spain	62.57
20(20)	Namibia	61.24
21(21)	Uruguay	60.47
22(22)	Russia	60.12
23(23)	Chile	59.52
24(25)	Belgium	58.88
25(24)	Portugal	57.75

For a complete list of IRB World Rankings click here.