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TOCC
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26yr old Martín Landajo(40 Test caps) has made history by becoming the first player to sign with the Argentina Super Rugby Team..
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I think they'll be a competitive team from the beginning. The Pampas squad that beat all our Super Rugby A sides last year to win the Pacific Rugby Cup was full of young players and will provide the majority of their team next year.
They obviously won't attract all of their players back from Europe but I'm sure they'll get a few of them, especially given the change in policy for test selection. Add those guys to that Pampas team and it'll be a good squad with a lot of depth.
The concern for me is that with only 1 Super Rugby team the Pumas will be weakened in the short term. If the Super Rugby side finished mid table in its first season that'd be a pretty decent result - but will it cheapen the Rugby Championship to have effectively the same side taking on the Wallabies, All Blacks and Springboks?
Hopefully it won't be long til Argentina have 2+ teams.
My concern has always been that Argentina should have two Super teams from the beginning of their entry into the comp. My reason is slightly different in that I can see the one Super squad being virtually the Pumas' squad and there'll be little difference between their Super and test teams. I don't think it will be a good thing to have essentially a test team playing in a provincial competition. Have the same misgivings about Japan's entry.
Maybe they can get a warm-up with "Wales."The Japanese side will likely be a bit stronger than the Japanese national team as it'll have a few imports.
It will basically be a larger Pumas squad given they're only going to select locally based players for the test team from 2016. I guess the difference is that they'll rotate their players a bit more in Super Rugby.
My understanding is that the Argentinian Union wanted to have only 1 team to begin with. It is a big financial commitment after all and I guess they want to bed down 1 team before they think about a 2nd.
The Japanese side will likely be a bit stronger than the Japanese national team as it'll have a few imports.
It's not ideal to have only 1 team from either country but the situation will last 5 years at most. And I wouldn't be surprised if it changed earlier than that.
Leading to an Americas conference made up of 2 teams each from Argentina, US and Canada.
Japan and Argentina will be racking up the frequent flyer points that's for sure.
This Argentinean side is looking a bit unfair, it's almost going to be the national side isn't it? Will be hard to beat.
This Argentinean side is looking a bit unfair, it's almost going to be the national side isn't it? Will be hard to beat.
A lot of their test team are still Europe based though aren't they?