<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (stormer2010 @ Oct 1 2009, 05:57 AM)
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THe baa baas have lost their appeal. This match should be a showcase event not a test match. Some Argies should definately be there as well, especially considering the invitation to play in a reworked 3N tourney. Hell, I'd invite Fiji and Tonga, Samoa, Kenya and Zimbabwe as well and have aech play the other only once. That still makes for 9 fixtures but lessens the repitition and makes SA vs NZ special again. AUS and NZ can also feel the travel bug as we do in that case
Too many fixtures, especially AUS facing NZ 4 times a year! No flavour to the Baa baas. At least the Bokke have added another midweek fixture to their EOY tour. That at least is a throwback to years when rugby was special.
PS Have there been any response from Argentina re accepting, also waiting to hear if their top players are willing to have a pay cut. Hernandez did but I would be surprised if everyone else climbed on board. Pity Hernandez didn't come to the Stormers and play fullback.[/b]
The UAR is of course enormously grateful regarding the invitation, and Porfirio Carreras has promised he'll commit to make it happen. Most Argentinian players happen to have signed contracts that caducate prior to the eventual Four Nations in 2012 -- which is not a coincidence whatsoever: let's take into account the fact that neither the UAR, nor the iRB have done anything to speed up the process (except for the 2 million USD the latter commits to the PlaDAR, the High Performance Plan). We owe it all to
AgustÃn Pichot. Ever since the RWC ended he continued to fight for our cause, I know for a fact that he has hardly seen his family in the last year, because he's been touring the SANZAR nations as well as the iRB HQ. He leads the PlaDAR as well, so it wouldn't be inaccurate to say he had foretold his former Pumas colleagues that there was a chance of making it into the 3N sometime soon, which is why none of them signed lengthy contracts.
Therefore, Argentine players should start to join the Super 14/15 as soon as they are allowed to. Australia might benefit in being able to import powerful front-rowers and hard-nosed forwards to somehow bypass (but not resolve) the lack of depth they've been experiencing.
Los Pumas are CRAZY about joining the 4N. They will do whatever they are asked to, regardless of whether it would actually benefit them or not.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (bristol-iain @ Oct 1 2009, 06:58 AM)
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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Nickdnz @ Oct 1 2009, 10:39 AM)
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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (stormer2010 @ Oct 1 2009, 09:57 PM)
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THe baa baas have lost their appeal. This match should be a showcase event not a test match. Some Argies should definately be there as well, especially considering the invitation to play in a reworked 3N tourney.
Hell, I'd invite Fiji and Tonga, Samoa, Kenya and Zimbabwe as well and have aech play the other only once. That still makes for 9 fixtures but lessens the repitition and makes SA vs NZ special again. AUS and NZ can also feel the travel bug as we do in that case
Too many fixtures, especially AUS facing NZ 4 times a year! No flavour to the Baa baas. At least the Bokke have added another midweek fixture to their EOY tour. That at least is a throwback to years when rugby was special.
PS Have there been any response from Argentina re accepting, also waiting to hear if their top players are willing to have a pay cut. Hernandez did but I would be surprised if everyone else climbed on board. Pity Hernandez didn't come to the Stormers and play fullback.[/b]
So the scores would look like this for NZ for example...(I don't know why you left out Namibia as it is Africa's WC team apart from SA)...
NZ vs Fiji - 60-25
NZ vs Samoa - 88-10
NZ vs Tonga - 101-13
NZ vs Australia - 22-19
NZ vs Kenya - 201-0
NZ vs Zimbabwe - 189-0
NZ vs South Africa - 21-31
NZ vs Argentina - 40-34
Sorry, how is this going to make the Tri Nations (Now the 8 nations I guess), be a more interesting competition, I mean the scores may offend a few teams, but come on...how is that exciting, it will lower the level of play so dramatically. 2 tests a year under the likley new system is fair and will still make SA vs NZ and NZ vs Aus and Aus vs SA remain special.
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Ok apart from a slight exaggeration of the scores I agree, in inviting Argentina the Tri/Quad Nations is now at the stage when any more tinkering would ruin it.
There was talk that Argentina would join the 6N making it 7N, Argentina being based in Belgium or Holland, but I hope they do join the Tri Nations.
In the matter of the Baa Baas, I too, feel that they have lost the mystique thay use to hold, they used to be an exciting prospect bt now, for some reason they just aren't an atrractive prospect any more.
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People tend to think that Argentina's highest priority is to face more skilled international squads on a regular basis. While this is true to a certain extent, the long-term plan is to
get Argentinians interested in the Rugby world. Playing the 6N would've been nice, but... how would playing in Belgium / Spain catch people's attention? Nobody would care (consider the fact football is well ahead of Rugby down here). On the other hand, being able to watch the likes of Carter, McCaw, Matfield, Habana, Giteau taking on Los Pumas, in Argentina would really boost the sport in Argentina. During the last 3N, I woke up at 3:30 AM / 7:00 AM just to watch the games with my friends. Darn, in the opening match we dropped by a local bar and everybody was watching the match (much to the dismay of the good looking ladies there
)... I can't imagine what would happen were us to watch them live.
In 1999, after Los Pumas made the QF in the RWC, people began to notice them.
In 2007, when they showed us what could be achieved against overwhelming odds, people began to love them.
Will 2012 be the start of a new era for Argentine Rugby? I hope so. It's time to get rid of that sport for <strike>crybabies</strike> <strike>girls</strike> individualists and embrace Rugby both as sport, and as lifestyle.
