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Elisalex · 11-30-2007, 02:15 PM

We are completely disappointed with the decision of the IRB that our Pumas must play in the Southern Hemisphere; they did not take into account that most of our international players are concentrated mainly in the UK, Ireland and France, including our coach Marcelo Loffreda, who is coaching the Leicester’s Tigers now. On the other hand very few people wants us playing or in the Six Nations or the Tri Nations, they are many prejudices, lacks of knowledge about Argentina and some comments are quite disgusting and upsets me a lot.
There are some double standard arguments, as an example the Europeans, mostly the French clubs and fans, say that we are in the Southern Hemisphere, in spite that almost 95 % of Argentineans have a complete European background. Furthermore, some 6 million Argentinean citizens, have double citizenship with countries from the EU, which is my case and my whole family. There is another argument which is quite common to read in those European blog is that we are too far away. Quite obvious we have to flight some twelve hours to Paris or London, but to Australia or NZ we have more than 24 hours sometimes depending if we go through Europe or Chile. From BA to Cape Town we have some 12 hours as well.
So in any case we are far away of the Europeans and the Tri Nations. But this is not an excuse or an argument to tell us, you cannot play in any of our tournaments. I am afraid that the real reason not to allow us to play in Europe is quite simple, our Pumas got the third place in the RWC, so in Europe they believe that our boys might end winning the Six Nations Cup, we had beaten all those countries, and lost only our last match with Wales before the RWC. The only team that has almost always beaten us are the South Africans, only once as far I can remember we had a victory over the Boks, when we played as South America XV but that was long time ago.
Therefore in this crossroad I had never been quite optimistic about the outcome of IRB meeting in Dublin. We are still playing amateur rugby, and we are perhaps the only country in the world that keeps the soul of rugby in the way that Mr. Ellis and others wanted, as Mick Leary of the London Daily Telegraph said few weeks ago. We are rejected mainly because of business arguments, which are ludicrous if we take into account that at least six major multinationals are deciding to afford all expenses of our Pumas and fund the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR), so they can pay wages to a group of players who will play internationally. We only have now a little hope of receiving the support of you, South Africans, it is well known that the Aussies do not want us inside the Tri Nations, and we have to wait till 2012, I hope to be alive in four years from now, only our Good Lord knows.

Elisalex · 11-30-2007, 09:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elisalex

We are completely disappointed with the decision of the IRB that our Pumas must play in the Southern Hemisphere; they did not take into account that most of our international players are concentrated mainly in the UK, Ireland and France, including our coach Marcelo Loffreda, who is coaching the Leicester’s Tigers now. On the other hand very few people wants us playing or in the Six Nations or the Tri Nations, they are many prejudices, lacks of knowledge about Argentina and some comments are quite disgusting and upsets me a lot.
There are some double standard arguments, as an example the Europeans, mostly the French clubs and fans, say that we are in the Southern Hemisphere, in spite that almost 95 % of Argentineans have a complete European background. Furthermore, some 6 million Argentinean citizens, have double citizenship with countries from the EU, which is my case and my whole family. There is another argument which is quite common to read in those European blog is that we are too far away. Quite obvious we have to flight some twelve hours to Paris or London, but to Australia or NZ we have more than 24 hours sometimes depending if we go through Europe or Chile. From BA to Cape Town we have some 12 hours as well.
So in any case we are far away of the Europeans and the Tri Nations. But this is not an excuse or an argument to tell us, you cannot play in any of our tournaments. I am afraid that the real reason not to allow us to play in Europe is quite simple, our Pumas got the third place in the RWC, so in Europe they believe that our boys might end winning the Six Nations Cup, we had beaten all those countries, and lost only our last match with Wales before the RWC. The only team that has almost always beaten us are the South Africans, only once as far I can remember we had a victory over the Boks, when we played as South America XV but that was long time ago.
Therefore in this crossroad I had never been quite optimistic about the outcome of IRB meeting in Dublin. We are still playing amateur rugby, and we are perhaps the only country in the world that keeps the soul of rugby in the way that Mr. Ellis and others wanted, as Mick Leary of the London Daily Telegraph said few weeks ago. We are rejected mainly because of business arguments, which are ludicrous if we take into account that at least six major multinationals are deciding to afford all expenses of our Pumas and fund the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR), so they can pay wages to a group of players who will play internationally. We only have now a little hope of receiving the support of you, South Africans, it is well known that the Aussies do not want us inside the Tri Nations, and we have to wait till 2012, I hope to be alive in four years from now, only our Good Lord knows.

A news agency said tonight: “Argentina captain Agustin Pichot expressed his disappointment that the Pumas won't be allowed enter the Six Nations tournament, and their participation in the tri-nations seems a long way off. With most of the Argentinean players playing club rugby in Europe, there was a demand from fans to let them take part in the Six Nations tournament. However this seems to have been completely ruled out.
'When we entered into the details, it became obvious that there's a very marked conflict between the northern and southern hemispheres and Argentina is stuck in the middle of this 'fight' because their players are playing in Europe,' Pichot said. 'The truth is I see this matter as long term, a process that will take a lot longer than looked the case after the World Cup,' he told to ESPN in Argentina. Pichot said as well that with the majority of Pumas playing for European clubs, the UAR must 'try to find the solution so that our players are contract free to take part in the Tri-nations.'

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