Argentina: Team Profile - Rugby World Cup 2011
The first game of rugby played in Argentina has been recorded as early as 1873. The Argentina Rugby Union (UAR) was however founded in 1899. Initially, it was associated with the English Rugby Union but broke away to become a separate body in 1932. It became
a part of the International Rugby Board (IRB) after the Rugby World Cup (RWC) of 1987. Since 2009 it is also a part of the SANZAR, which has South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and the IRB as its members. In this year’s RWC, Argentina finds itself in Pool
B along with England, Scotland, Georgia and Romania.
The South American rugby union national team is also known as the Los Pumas. Although rugby is not as popular in Argentina when compared to football, the national team has gained some fame since its appearance in the RWC of 1999 and in several Six Nations
tournaments. The team is still the only entity to have been undefeated against the entire American rugby teams of both North and South Americas, having lost to the Canadian team only twice out of the eight games played.
The team further showed their strength in the rugby field when, in their first match of RWC 2007, they defeated France and were placed at number four in the IRB World Rankings. They further improved their standing by reaching the semi-final after beating
Scotland by 19-13 in the RWC’s quarter-final match. They were previously indomitable in their pool matches. On the other hand, they lost the semi-final against South Africa but beat the French team to come out at the third place in RWC 2007.
The team’s IRB World ranking increased in 2008 by reaching the number three, one up from the previous year. They dropped to number five in 2009 but were still high enough to join the ranks of world champions like South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
With the RWC 2011 on the horizon, the Argentinean rugby team is all set and the present head coach, Santiago Phelan, and coach Fabian Turnes have named their 30 man squad. Leading the Pumas for the RWC is the flanker and vice captain Juan Martin Fernandez
Lobbe and the fly-half and captain Felipe Contepomi. The captain has a history of being capped 70 times since he joined, while the vice captain’s experience is being capped 39 times.
Contepomi has been part of the Argentinean rugby world since 1998 and has been the captain since 2008. During his career he has played with teams like Leinster, Bristol Rugby, Argentina and Toulon. The vice -captain Lobbe on the other hand, joined with the
UAR in 2004 and since then has been part of both the provincial team and the national team, the Pumas. His rugby career has been under the teams like Toulon, Sale Sharks and Argentina.
There are a total of 16 forwards and 14 backs in the team for the RWC 2011. The other fly-half, for the team, aside from the captain is Juan Martin Hernandez. The squad players at the props positions are Marcos Ayerza, Eusebio Guinazu, Juan Figallo, Juan
Pablo Orlandi and Rodrigo Roncero.
Hookers in the squad are Mario Ledesma, Federico Martin Aramburu and Alberto Vernet Basualdo. The wings include Agustin Figuerola, Horacio Agulla and Lucas Borges. Amongst the flankers are Alvaro Galindo, Martin Durand and Juan Manuel Leguizamon. The locks
include Esteban Lozada, Patricio Albacete, Mariano Galarza and Rimas Alvarez.
Santiago Fernandez, Rafael Carballo, Miguel Avramovic and Gonzalo Tiesi are the centres for the team. Among the Scrum-half are counted Nicolas Vergallo and Nicolas Bruzzone. The team’s full-back is Bernardo Stortoni, along with Francisco Leonelli, who also
plays the wing position and finally the player Ignacio Corleto.
Their latest ranking by IRB shows them at the number eight position worldwide before the start of RWC 2011. After their joining with SANZAR, Argentina is now going to be part of the Tri-Nations, renamed Four Nations, for 2012.
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