Greg Peters has watched The Pumas' World Cup success have a huge impact on the football-mad nation.
Greg Peters is living the rugby dream in football-crazy Argentina.
Peters is the Kiwi riding the crest of Argentina's rugby wave, the former Sanzar boss who was lured by opportunity of guiding the Pumas and their new Super Rugby team into the professional era.
The former Hurricanes and Sanzar boss arrived in South America six months ago, but it's over the past six weeks that he's seen the most tangible signs of the widespread interest the oval ball code is attracting in a football mad country of 41 million people.
"It's been front page news in La Nacion, which is the national paper here," Peters told Fairfax from Buenos Aires ahead of the Pumas Rugby World Cup semifinal against Australia on Monday morning. "There was a story when we qualified for the semis and there have been other front page stories on rugby too.
"I drove into my carpark apartment building yesterday and the security guard asked me "Camiseta los Pumas por favor?", which means, 'Can I please have a Pumas shirt'. Anyone who thinks you are connected to the rugby here, they are into it."
The timing couldn't be better for Peters, who has a dual role as the general manager of the Union de Argentina de Rugby (UAR) and is also the head of the yet to be named Super Rugby team that will enter the competition next year.
With the team's launch in late November, the Pumas' rise to fourth in the world, and qualification for the World Cup semifinals has been a timely shot in the arm.
Even familiar faces from the soccer-mad nation have jumped on board the oval-ball bandwagon and footage of Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona dancing in the Pumas changing rooms after their pool match against Tonga was a viral hit on YouTube.
"There is also a 24 hour Rugby World Cup channel on ESPN," Peters said. "So it's getting as much prominence as it would get in New Zealand on that front. But also Maradona, they loved that. If he was there trying to give publicity for the Pumas or rugby in Argentina, he did a great job."
"Everyone saw him in the changing rooms, amazing scenes. That shows you where the Pumas are sitting over here at the moment."
Maradona's involvement symbolises the widespread interest in a young team that Peters believes is on the verge of something special - if not in coming weeks, then most certainly in years to come.
"If you cycle back to 2007 when we came third in the World Cup - after that the board put in place some really strong building blocks and a high performance plan, and a plan to get into world competitions, which as it turned out was Sanzar after being closed out by the Northern Hemisphere."
Back then Peters was the chief executive of the Wellington Rugby Union and the Hurricanes, but by 2010 he was the helm of Sanzar, and trumpeted the cause for expanding Super Rugby into South America.
One of the main reasons was that he could see the development pathways the national union had put in place and now he believes the world will start to see them too.
"The factory has started to develop some very strong young talent. If you look through the average age of the Pumas it's very young. There are a lot of 22, 23, 24-year-olds and there are only two or three guys over 30."
Of the team named to play the Wallabies in the semifinal, locks Guido Petti and Tomás Lavanini are 20 and 22, reserve loose head Julian Montoya just 21.
"Of the team that played the Springboks in the final match of the Rugby Championship this year, 19 of the 23 players were locally produced," Peters said. "That gives you a feel for where these guys have come from. Pre-2007 they all played offshore and went overseas very young. Gus Pichot went away he was 20."
Peters describes Pichot as the "architect" of Argentina's entry into the professional era.
"Just an amazing guy, a pocket rocket. He only retired from rugby in 2009 and without his leadership and vision the Pumas wouldn't be in the Rugby Championship, there would be no Super Rugby team. His knowledge of being overseas and talking to people around the world and working with the board has driven the whole development.
"And now players are coming back, even the big name guys, Juan Martin Hernandez and [Joaquin] Tuculet and Agustin Creevy are coming back from the northern hemisphere to play Super Rugby, that's very exciting."
Peters has already signed 22 of the Pumas World Cup squad to the Super Rugby team along with another nine players and is in the process of establishing a wider training squad.
He sees many similarities between rugby in Argentina and what he grew up with in New Zealand.
"Traditionally Pumas fans in this country when they are here don't wear the team shirt much. It's a bit like some people in New Zealand won't wear an All Blacks jersey because they don't feel they've earned it. I never have because it just doesn't feel right.
"For all the passion they have some traditional views that aren't too dissimilar to New Zealand… You also see the connection so strongly between the players and the fans and the players and the families. They play for their families and the country and their fans."
Argentina's new Super Rugby team will play in a smaller stadium, possibly 15,000 in capacity, in a bid to trade on the atmosphere created by its initial fan base.
And he firmly believes that there is every possibility the country's first year in Super Rugby could also coincide with their first Rugby World Cup title.
"They went there with a goal in mind and they haven't achieved that goal yet. They're fully aware of the challenge this weekend, but they're up for it. I'm pretty sure there are a few New Zealand fans who will be cheering for the Pumas this weekend."
- Stuff
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