Instead of becoming like Italy, who play stodgy, going-nowhere rugby, or indeed like France, who have lost all semblance of the flair for which they were once so well-known, they have become a joy to watch, combining their traditional forward power with the ability to stretch defences with vision and pace.
Could this change in style have ever happened whilst playing in the Six Nations? No, according to defence coach Pablo Bouza.
“I don't think so,” said the former forward, capped 37 times by his country. “They are such different styles, when you play here in autumn, November, the pitches are slow, the breakdown is tough, it’s tough to have quick ball to play. When you have quick ball, for us it's very positive. So the Rugby Championship has been something great for us.”
Unlike Italy- or indeed, France- Argentina have improved in recent years
The process of change had begun under former coach Santiago Phelan, who had benefited from the consultancy advice of former New Zealand coach Graham Henry. The message from Henry had been simple: Argentina had to score more tries.
And this was the theme that was taken up by current coach Daniel Hourcade, when he took over in 2013.
“Since Daniel started he has liked the positive brand of rugby, so we came with him,” said Bouza yesterday in Cardiff as, just to rub a little more salt into the northern hemisphere wound, Argentina prepared to move from Wales’ training base to England’s at Pennyhill Park. “He thinks it is the best rugby for us. And he told the players that and he convinced the players to do that in every match.”
So there was a perfect demonstration of this in Cardiff on Sunday in the thrashing of Ireland 43-20.
Argentina's travelling support enjoyed their win against Ireland
“I think it was one of the best performances Argentina have had with Daniel as coach,” said Bouza. “The first 20 minutes was great, then we had the yellow card (for prop Ramiro Herrera) and Ireland came back with great power. The last 20 minutes when our bench came on it was great for us.”
But none of this is, of course, to say that Argentina are the finished article. They have only won two of their 21 matches in the Rugby Championship. Though they drew their second match, against South Africa in 2012, it took them until their 18th to record a victory, over Australia in Mendoza in 2014, before beating South Africa in Durban in August of this year.
Playing against New Zealand so frequently has helped considerably, though. They met them in the 2011 RWC, but since then have played them eight times, the same number of games played against them between 1990 and that 2011 encounter.
“For the players, and for us as coaches, we are always learning when we play against New Zealand,” said Bouza.
Competing regularly against New Zealand has helped to improve Argentina
And next year the next step is to be taken, with an Argentine franchise being included in the Super Rugby competition.
“It is going to be another learning curve,” said Bouza. “For us it is going to be the first year with so many players going to play Super Rugby and then the Rugby Championship, it is going to be a long year. It is going to be very different for us.”
As is a semi-final against Australia on Sunday for a football-dominated nation that also has a presidential election that day.
“They say people back home are going crazy but we do not know because we are here,” said Bouza. “We are trying to stay focused in what we are doing here.”
They are doing that very nicely at the moment.
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