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.

USA and Canada close to joining Pacific Nations Cup

Japan celebrate winning 2011 Pacific Nations Cup

As reported back in January, the Tier Two rugby nations are not overly happy with the global rugby order and are seeking significant changes to have a solid and competitive international program. The President of the Georgia Rugby Union, Gia Niijharadze had made reference to a meeting to involve rugby´s second tier nations - Canada, Fiji, Georgia, Japan, Romania, Russia, Samoa, Tonga and the United States of America with the objective being to establish a competition involving these sides and for the competition to start in 2013. The meeting indeed was held, taking place in las Vegas, Nevada in February.  

The chances of such a competition getting the green light from the IRB remain unknown but there is no doubt that chances will be made, and in fact, some already have been. The CEO of USA Rugby, Nigel Melville outlined the changes for the USA mens team on his personal website this past weekend. It followed a weekend of negotiations with union members representing the Pacific Islands, Japan and the IRB and had the specific purpose of attempting to create a new structure for the Pacific Nations Cup for the years of 2013, 2014 and 2015. The Pacific Nations Cup started in 2006, replacing the Pacific Tri Nations which featured Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. Japan entered in 2006 as did the Junior All Blacks and Australia A entered in 2007. Neither of the A teams from Oceania´s Tier One sides compete any longer in the competition due to economic cut-backs but this is a good thing for Second Tier rugby as the void left by these teams would be much be utilized by a test playing team such as the USA Eagles and Canada.

Melville pointed out that the serious lack of regular international competition of real meaning is the biggest challenge to USA Rugby. Without changes being made it is a highly complicated road to see the USA Eagles become more competitive. He contends that the USA want to play against Tier One teams but its not easy to secure matches given the clear preference of playing against other Tier One sides due to the higher commercial value on offer. That being said, Melville also acknowledges the comparable advantage of the USA touring Europe to face Tier Two sides rather than Tier One sides. The November 2010 tour being such an example when the USA played Georgia and Portugal. Facing these teams as well as Romania, Russia and Spain is certainly the right direction for November tours. 

The USA have the international windows of June and November to field its strongest players and this is the focus with Melville looking to maximize these slots to the advantage of the USA Eagles. With neighbours, Canada being in precisely the same situation and the changes that have seen the Churchill Cup axed will be felt next month with both Canada and the USA hosting Georgia and Italy as well as playing each other. This is an ideal fixture list for both teams and it will be replicated in 2013 and 2014 with Ireland and Scotland to tour North America.

The discussions surrounding North American participation in the Pacific Nations Cup have taken the direction of Europe. While the first tier play in the Six Nations, the second play in the European Nations Cup, a FIRA tournament involving six teams taking place at the same time as the Six Nations, but spread of two years to have home and away matches. Melville pointed out that such a model looms as the way forward for the Second Tier outside of Europe. As such, Canada and the USA would like to be included in an expanded Pacific Nations Cup to play with matches against Fiji, Japan Samoa and Tonga serving the interests of not only the North Americans but also the four existing sides.

To ensure the competition can be as successful as it ought to be it will take place in June and this is where the biggest challenge lies for the teams. The proposal that the IRB is currently evaluating is for the USA and Canada to have one home test per year against a Tier One side (with Ireland and Scotland already locked in for 2013 and 2014) in June and matches against Canada plus the four Pacific Nations Cup teams. November tours will not be altered with matches to be played against teams from the European Nations Cup.

As such a sample schedule for 2013 could well be similar to the following:

Saturday June 8 USA vs Japan (Pacific Nations Cup)
Saturday June 15 USA vs Ireland
Friday June 21 USA vs Tonga (Pacific Nations Cup)
Wednesday June 26 Fiji vs USA (Pacific Nations Cup)
Sunday June 30 Samoa vs USA (Pacific Nations Cup)

Saturday July 13 USA vs Canada (Pacific Nations Cup + World Cup Qualifier)
Saturday July 20 Canada vs USA (Pacific Nations Cup + World Cup Qualifier)

Saturday November 9  Spain vs USA
Saturday November 16 Romania vs USA
Saturday November 23 Russia vs USA
Saturday November 30 Georgia vs USA

Based on: Nigel Melville

RWC 1999 - Agustín Pichot Try vs Japan

Pichot scores vs Japan, RWC 1999

Last year was a big year for former Pumas scrumhalf and captain, Agustín Pichot. He was honored by both the IRB and global rugby fans with two distinctive awards. The IRB awarded him with the honor of inducting him into the IRB Hall of Fame while the global rugby audience voted him in as the best scrumhalf in the history of the Rugby World Cup. Since then he has gone on to play a major part in getting Argentina into The Rugby Championship and is the UAR´s representative to the IRB. He is also leading what is going to be an official bid for Argentina to host Rugby World Cup 2023.

While Pichot is best remembered well for his role in leading Argentina to the Bronze Medal in France 2007, that World Cup was his fourth and he had emerged from being largely unknown to be a star performer at Rugby World Cup 1999, playing a big role in his country´s wins over Samoa, Japan and Ireland. His try vs Japan was the highlight of the match and Pichot went on to score a good scrumhalves try vs France in the Quarter Final. Argentina won the match 33-12 vs Japan in Cardiff´s Millenium Stadium six days after defeating Samoa 32-16 in Llanelli. The quality of the video is not the greatest but it is the best avaliable.

Rugby World Cup 2007 - Canada vs Japan

Canadian legends Rod Snow, Mike James and Morgan Williams together for the last time

One of the most exciting matches of Rugby World Cup 2007 was the tournaments only draw. It was a pool match between Canada and Japan at the Stade Chaban Delmas in the Southern-west of France in the wine Mecca of Bordeaux. The city hosted four matches with Canada being involved in two of them. Canada played its third and fourth matches in Bordeaux after having taken on Wales in Nantes and Fiji in Cardiff. the Canadians had put in good performances but incomplete ones as they had blown opportunities in both matches for a victory. Canada had put in a solid first half vs Wales which had given the favorites a massive scare which, no doubt, brought back memories from the 1993 clash between the two teams in Cardiff. On that day the North Americans left their mark forever on global rugby.

But in 2007 Canadian rugby was in need of a boost and the boost that Canadian rugby authorities and followers had been seeking for from France 2007 had not yet occured, despite 80 good minutes of rugby in the first 160 minutes at the tournament. Coach Ric Sluggo Suggitt had summed up the situation perfectly in a pre-match interview before the Japanese match in saying that Canada had played two good halves - the first vs Wales and the second vs Fiji. Canada now needed to put it together and defeat Japan. The match was built up as an interesting one due to not only both sides eeding a win but due to how both had played. The Japanese fielded a B team in its match vs Australia and were well beaten. They then fielded a team packed with the best Japanese rugby has to offer for the teams clash with Fiji in Toulouse four days latter. The match between Japan and Fiji was a back-and-forward game with Japan pushing Fiji to the limit in a highly entertaining try-scoring feast of a contest. Fiji held on to win the match 35-31. 

Canada fielded a team with more to offer in the forwards than the backs. Despite not having the services of Clermont´s Jamie Cudmore the team was nonetheless strong in the forwards with secondrower Colin Yukes playing in the backrow. Canada had five forwards and onyl two backs on the bench and of the forwards three were props. Suggitt had selected Aaron Carpenter at 8 for the match. He was considered Canada´s back up hooker to Pat Riordan. The backs featured a running flyhalf with Ryan Smith playing 10 rather than 12. It was an indication of Canada´s intentions but the match failed to be as highscoring as it could have been. The match also saw secondrower Mike James play for his country for the final time before retirement. James had been a key player for Canada for a long time and had won the French Championship with Stade Français earlier in the year.

The most important thing to come out of the game was not the result, but, rather the importance of having 20 teams at World Cup´s. A number of Tier One sides were pushing for the World Cup to be reduced to 16 teams and the idea appearwed to have the backing of the IRB. France 2007 destroyed the idea however as Argentina got the tournament off to the perfect start with a win over France in Paris. Canada vs Japan acted as a reminder that great games do not require Tier One teams and that both Canada and Japan are vital participants of World Cup´s. 

Rugby World Cup 2007 - Canada vs Fiji

Host venues for France 2007

The best Rugby World Cup ever was not Rugby World Cup 2011 but rather 2007. Both tournaments delivered quality matches with upsets taking place and were well organzed. The crowds were larger at France 2007 not only because the venues are larger but because there were some matches that were not well attended in New Zealand 2011. The crunch Pool 3 match of Argentina vs Scotland in Wellington had a crowd of under 30,000 at a venue of 40,000. The empty seats painted a negative image. The same did not happen four years earlier as France delivered big crowds with crowds packing matches throughout the country. The one weakness of the tournament was the allocation of two matches to Edinburgh and three to Cardiff. These British cities hosted matches in exchange for voting on France rather than England as the host nation for Rugby World Cup 2007. Ireland had been set to all host but missed out due to the reconstruction of the former Lansdown Road in Dublin. Curiously, Wales will host yet again in 2015 as England looks to utilize the Millenium Stadium, a venue which failed to deliver for two of its three matches in 2007. 

Should Argentina host Rugby World Cup 2023 it can do so on its own and has absolutely no need to have a subhost involved. The stated requirements of a minimum of ten venues can be more than catered for by the Republic of Argentina. The South American country´s home matches in 2012 are a strong indication that the country has the capability with six different cities confirmed to host Los Pumas´ six home matches. The UAR had given cities throughout Argentina the opportunity of officially bidding to host internationals this year and delivered on its promise with Córdoba, La Plata, Mendoza, Rosario, San Juan and Tucumán confirmed to host matches. All meet the requirements as cities to host World Cup matches and, with the exception of Tucumán, all are modern stadiums. In awarding these cities matches, there were other´s interested in hosting  who missed out. Buenos Aires, Resistencia, Salta and Santa Fé had all applied for matches too and all have appropriate stadiums. This would give Argentina with ten venues, one less than what Australia used in hosting Rugby World Cup 2003 and the same number of French venues in 2007.

Morgan Williams passes from a ruck

On the second weekend of France 2007 Canada vs Fiji took place in Cardiff. It was the second match for both teams with Canada having pushed Wales hard before at a packed Nantes being overwhelmed  and Fiji having played one of the best matches of the tournament to hold off Japan for a 35-31 victory in front of a packed Toulouse. It was a match that neither Fiji nor Canada could afford to lose as both were chasing the dream of a Quarters Finals appearance, with Canada having made the final eight in 1991 and Fiji in 1987. Whoever lost this match would see its chances of advancing evaporate. With a highly visible large quantity of unsold seats, Fiji held off a Canadian team that was determined to get the job done but missed ou on scoring tries at crucial times. Having been leading 15-6 at the interval, Fiji were able to complete a 29-16 win but it was Canada playing all the rugby in the second half. Had Mike Pike´s 70th minute try been awarded by the video referee then Canada could well have won the match. Fiji´s spontaneity, however, proved to be match winning.  

The tournament was the end of an era for Canadian rugby with legendary internationals and former Stade Français players Morgan Williams and Mike James playing international rugby for the final time. The strength of Canada in certain positions meant Jamie Cudmore was playing in the backrow and Ed Fairhurst was on the bench. Curiously, Canada´s 2011 no. 8 was also on the bench but as hooker. Another play to change position was Ryan Smith who in New Zealand 2011 played inside centre but was the teams flyhalf vs Fiji in 2007. He replaced Ander Monro for the match and had a good performance, scoring Canada´s only try. At the time he was based in France with the then Top 14 Orange side, Montauban.