Brendan Gallagher: This golden generation of Pumas WILL top the world

As befits a good Yorkshire man, Les Cusworth is not a betting man. But if he was he would invest heavily in Argentina winning the 2019 World Cup in Japan. In fact he’s not ruling out a sensational win this time round in England.
Cusworth was once the maverick fly-half and Sevens supremo who ignited those great Leicester sides of the 1980s, but he is also the man who, starting back in 2007, helped establish a ring of rugby academies around Argentina – the results of which are there for all to see with the current fast-emerging Pumas squad.
For seven years, from 2006 to 2013 he worked as the Argentinian high performance manager, establishing academies all around the vast country. Along with the governing body World Rugby, he also used his contacts to entice the likes of Fabian Galthie and Sir Graham Henry over to Argentina for significant spells to coach the coaches and to run the rule over young Pumas tyros.
National coach Daniel Hourcade is now benefitting from a veritable conveyor belt of talent spewing forth excitingly gifted players, individuals well versed in the basics but displaying real panache and Latin verve. No longer can you stereotype Argentinian rugby as stodgy forward-orientated fare, beasts from the Pampas putting plenty of stick about. Now they have a cutting edge and the ability to excite and entertain.
Combine this new generation of players with the opportunity to develop and grow in the Rugby Championship alongside the SANZAR giants and you have the perfect storm. The Pumas can still be inconsistent – mainly because they are essentially a young team learning their trade – but Cusworth’s infectious enthusiasm for the future of Argentinian rugby is probably well founded.
He told The Rugby Paper: “It’s been amazing watching all the young talented players come through the system in the last seven or eight years and then seemingly go straight through into the Pumas squad and, believe me, there are hundreds more out there of that quality in the pipeline.
“Hundreds not scores. Argentinians are built for rugby, they have every type of athlete within their borders and they have that competitive Latin culture and are very sports savvy. Give them a level playing field in terms of opportunity and facilities and it will be a case of when, not if, they eventually win the World Cup.
“I look at their squad of 31 now and think probably 25 of those players will still be available and at their peak in four years’ time. A small group of big names will be stepping down – Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Juan Manual Leguizamon, Marcelo Bosch, Juan Martin Hernandez and perhaps Marcos Ayerza before then – but you can in any case already see their replacements. Just look at the ages of some of the players making names for themselves right now in England. Go on!”
Ok we’ll do that: Lock Guido Petti (20) – he was the guy knocked out by Dan Carter’s boot scoring a try against the All Blacks at Wembley – back three star Santiago Cordero (21), above, reserve hook Julian Montoya (21), No.8 Facundo Isa (22), below, flanker Pablo Matera (22), lock Tomas Lavanini (22), prop Lucas Paz (22), lock Matias Alemanio (23) centres Jerónimo de la Fuente (24) and Matias Moroni (24). Powerhouse wing Manuel Mantero, absent with an ACL, is still only 23 while there is another group of players just a couple of years older who were the first graduates of the academies. They include flanker Javier Desio (25) and a clutch of 26-years-olds – prop Ramiro Herrera, fly-half Nicolas Sanchez, scrum-half Tomás Cubili and full-back Joaquín Tuculet.
Point taken. From the outside looking in you can already predict a massive 2019 World Cup with that golden generation and others honed by a further four years of playing in the Rugby Championship. A Super Rugby franchise based in Buenos Aires will further accelerate that process from next year onwards but surely they can’t seriously challenge for the World Cup this year can they?
Cusworth says: “I’ve seen stranger things. They rattled the All Blacks good and proper in that first match at Wembley – with good rugby nothing else – and if they progress smoothly to the quarter-finals as they should I can assure you neither Ireland nor France will be particularly relishing meeting Argentina.
“I don’t see a team in the tournament that the Pumas can’t beat. That’s not quite the same as saying they will win it but if things fell into place they could go very close. The one big thing the Rugby Championship has taught them is not to be frightened of anybody. They move among the best of the best now and they are just beginning to feel at home and when they achieve that fully they will express themselves even more.”
Cusworth’s contribution to this process has been to lay the foundations. He moved to Argentina in 2000 when he married an Argentinian and was heavily involved in the coaching side during that period, assisting various national coaches. But it was as the head of performance from 2007 onwards that he has really made a difference.
Argentina’s third place at RWC2007 was a watershed and from that moment onwards it was clear that the Pumas would at some stage in the near future be allowed to take their rightful place at rugby’s top table. It was therefore with some urgency that plans had to be laid in what was – and still is – an essentially amateur rugby nation.
Cusworth, the omnipresent seemingly tireless Gus Pichot, Mark Egan from the IRB and a couple of UAR directors were tasked with developing a system to maximise Argentina’s playing resources.
To start with, one big high performance centre in Buenos Aires which dominates Argentina to an almost ridiculous extent for such a large country seemed the way forward – and they were certainly under pressure to centralise any plans – but eventually they came up with an innovative scheme.
“Rugby Union in Argentina is a community-based sport and its strength are its clubs and the amateur ethos. That is not a weakness, it is a massive strength. It is also a nationwide sport with clubs and rugby communities north south east and west. So what we did was to put together a collaboration of local provincial mayors, central government funding and IRB investment in basic but not elaborate centres. Good playing field, floodlights and decent gym and changing rooms.
“And importantly we share all that with football and hockey, Argentina’s other great sporting passions along with basketball. The facilities are used by all of the community all of the time. They pay their way. The investment wasn’t small but it wasn’t huge and it was gradual, year on year. We started in Cordoba and then came Tucuman and Mendoza. All big ruby areas. Buenos Aries was the fourth academy to come on tap in 2009 and there are 12 now.
“The main investment is expert coaching, really cutting edge skills coaches and conditioners and coaches of international repute like Fabian and Graham who can make a big impact in a relatively short time.
“There is a lot of outstanding work going on around the country and in the last two to three years, for the first time in my experience, Rugby Union is really making inroads in the poorer areas. Until recently it was undoubtedly the sport of the middle class but there is definitely a working class element entering Argentinian rugby, which is great for all concerned.
“The passion for the game here can take you by surprise. We live in a town, or suburb of BA called Hurlingham – the same as the famous club in London – and with a local population of 28,000 we have three senior rugby clubs – Curupaity, Hurling Club and El Retiro – and between us we can have 1,200-plus kids playing rugby every weekend.
Just down the road is Cordero’s club Regatas Bella Vista and they will have the same interest at youth level.
“They all have a direct link with Cordero, he is their hero just as up in the north Isa (left) is the hero and totem pole figure with Santiago del Estero, and down south in Patagonia, Herrara is the man. They all represent their town and club
“The introduction of the new Super 15 franchise will be interesting. For the first time there will be a barrier – or perhaps distance is a better word – between the amateur club and all their members and voluntary workers and their favourite sons and players who will now be based with their professional club in the big city, Buenos Aires.
“It will take a little bit of getting used to but Argentina are good at adapting. They are consistently going to be a major force in the game in the decades to come, mark my words.”