World Rugby: January 9, 2016 - A new era beckons for Argentina rugby now that the Jaguares, the new
Buenos Aires-based professional team to play in the extended Super Rugby
competition, has started their pre-season full of excitement for the
season ahead.
Led by Puma captain Agustn Creevy (pictured above) and with
20 of his Rugby World Cup 2015 teammates, including the likes Juan
Martn Hernndez, Martn Landajo, Leonardo Senatore and Santiago
Cordero, this is the first full-time professional team to be based in
Argentina.
These are exciting times for all of us, said Creevy during a gap in
their heavy training schedule. The Super Rugby tournament is in its
21st season yet it is all new for us. If you ask everyone in the team,
they are all fans of the style of rugby played in Super Rugby and we are
all fully embarked on this project.
Long-term planning
Argentinas fourth place in the recent Rugby World Cup bodes well for
the future of this team and the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) decided
that in order to be eligible for the national team players must be
playing Super Rugby.
Entry into the Southern Hemispheres elite is part of a long-term
plan and pathway decided soon after Los Pumas third-place finish at
Rugby World Cup 2007.
World Rugbys Woking Forum set out some guidelines for Argentine
rugby to follow a couple of months after the conclusion of the
tournament in France and since then, with a solid high performance plan
in place, the game has grown in the country both in playing numbers and
in the strength of its national team, which is currently fifth in the
World Rugby Rankings.
The Jaguares team has come about after many years of planning and, in
the words of former Puma captain Agustn Pichot, it fulfils a long-held
ambition of his fellow countrymen.
Pichot said: We have dreamt of playing at this level. It comes after
Argentine rugby fulfilled every commitment made in terms of player
development and growing the structure in the past few years.
Having said this, we are very proud that we have managed to maintain
the amateur status of our game as it is an integral part of who we are;
amateur rugby has been a great feeder of our high performance
structures. This new professional team will strengthen that separation.
Punishing schedule awaits
Jaguares kick-off the new era on 26 February when they take on the
Cheetahs in Bloemfontein. The Sharks are next up on the mini-tour of
South Africa, before Jaguares return home to play the Chiefs at the
Vlez Sarsfield Stadium on 19 March followed by the Stormers a week
later. Jaguares will then head off on their travels for the next four
rounds, with three matches in New Zealand and then one in Japan.
Former international player and Pumas assistant coach Ral Prez
will lead a coaching team that includes World Rugby anti-doping
ambassador and Argentina Jaguars head coach, Felipe Contepomi. Although
we have been doing a lot of research and we have had a lot of travel
experience individually and with different national teams, we are going
into something new so we are setting short-term goals, says Prez.
We will carefully monitor player fatigue and although we have 30
contracted players and five more are invited to train with us, we have a
bigger pool of players that includes Argentina XV, the sevens squad and
the U20s.
Young guns
Rugby World Cup 2015 showcased some of the young and raw talent
coming out of Argentina. Players such as Cordero, flankers Pablo Matera
and Facundo Isa, front-rowers Julian Montoya and Lucas Noguera and locks
Toms Lavanini and Guido Petti are not yet 23 years old.
I speak with the younger players and tell them how fortunate they
are to be playing professionally at home, says Creevy, who at 21 moved
overseas to play rugby professionally.
Jaguares started training on 4 January at the Buenos Aires Cricket
and Rugby Club where they will be based for the next couple of years.
The start of pre-season marks the next exciting phase in the
development of the Jaguares having already named the squad, released the
logo, the brand and the colours and the rest of the details, remarked
Greg Peters, general rugby manager at the UAR and former SANZAR CEO.
The rugby starts in 50 days and to know that the Jaguares will be part
of the most exciting of competitions is something that has all of us
highly motivated.