The road of the Pumas and the road of the Lions: the difficult advance in international rugby

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"It is the result of a serious, consistent and well done work over many years."

This is how

, a member of the staff that led Argentine rugby to third place in the 2007 World Cup,

sums up

the recent

.

A triumph that for him certifies that the South American fifteen now "can play as equals against other powers."

In addition to that triumph, in the Trinations tournament that ended this Saturday, the Pumas were later swept away by New Zealand itself (0-38) and have added two draws (15-15 and 16-16) against Australia.

The Argentine advance attracts glances from Spain despite the distance between the two countries in the static hierarchy of the oval planet.

The Pumas were already a benchmark, an exporting country, in the amateur era.

For years they have challenged, and now they come to win, the best.

Several notches down,

.

They have not returned to a World Cup since 1999 and aspire to qualify for France 2023. "I think that in three or four years we can reach the position that Georgia, Fiji or Japan now occupy, it is an ambitious but realistic goal," says the Spanish coach

.

That would mean being just behind the

world

.

Very different starting points (37,800 licenses here, about 130,000 there), but one similarity: the need for long-term work.

Those "many years" that Barandiarán cites, today settled in Valladolid as sports director of the VRAC Quesos Entrepinares.

"The clubs are the enormous strength of Argentina, amateur rugby is our bastion," says Barandiarán.

The same happens in Spain: they recruit, train, generate talent.

arrived in Madrid two decades ago, his stage as a player in La Plata concluded and he is the general director of the Cisneros Complutense club.

In the clubs of his native country, "from 4 to 19 years there are two or three teams per year of birth, a large volume of players, and quality comes from quantity."

This is where the first difference arises: "In Spain, 70% of the players who come out of the under-18 are lost, many kids who don't have a place are being trained."

The head of the Cisneros quarry refers to the

Players born outside our country who raise the level of the teams -and the national team- but also slow down the access of young people to the first squads.

In 1998 Mario Barandiarán began to work in

in the Buenos Aires area.

He sought "to give the coaches tools to train good players and the clubs to train good coaches."

It talks about tactical thinking and technical skills, physical preparation, nutritional and training schedules for amateur practitioners.

"We put more focus on the third-class team than on the first team, we wanted to democratize knowledge," he recalls.

From Spain, he notes that "it has incredible potential, a very good training center for coaches" and highlights the high level of those who lead the most important teams and national teams.

He cites sporadic "controversy" between Federation and clubs over the availability of internationals when the calendars coincide.

"And it would take a little more money," he adds.

The annual budget of the Argentine federation was estimated, before the pandemic, at about 20 and a half million euros.

The one of the Spanish stays in the fifth part.

Part of the money that helped the launch came to Argentina for the third place of the Pumas in the 2007 World Cup. With the funds received from World Rugby, their federation promoted a

, which gave the centers that name. where the emerging amateurs began to group by geographical areas.

Today they supervise around 250 players, an elite settled in the country that feeds their teams and prevents them from depending only on the stars who have emigrated to Europe.

In the

de Cuyo, based in Mendoza,

, player of Silverstorm El Salvador de Valladolid

, trained for about three years from 2009

.

"It was quite a complicated effort," he recalls.

From Monday to Friday, I went to that center at seven in the morning to do an hour and a half in the gym or group technical exercises.

After studying at home, he would attend college in the afternoon and at nine he would train with his team, Lyceum Rugby, with which he lined up on the weekend.

At the stroke of midnight he dined and went to bed to get up at six.

"

, they tried to coordinate physical preparation with the clubs, those who stood out were wanted to give extra preparation."

He considers that that training gave him "a physical and mental base for this stage that I am enjoying."

Alvarado made his debut with the second Argentine team and, after leaving the

, crossed

.

He has been with Silverstorm El Salvador for four years, and due to his long residence in Spain, he can also align himself with the Lions, whose shirt he wore for the first time in November.

Although he assumes that it is not easy, he

.

Without

but with its incipient academies, the Spanish quarry bears fruit.

One of the Pumas that has made his debut at TriNations,

, started playing at the Majadahonda Rugby Club.

, just turned 21 and who started at the VRAC Quesos Entrepinares, is consolidating as a starter in the leading team of the French league.

Santos is convinced that, after the current prevalence of Gallic players with Spanish family roots, national talent is making its way to the Lions.

"In the basketball team there were Luyk, Brabender, Sibilio, Biriukov ... and now we export to the NBA. I am convinced that in 10, 15 years we will have a fifteen starter basically trained in Spain and playing in professional leagues."

But

.

In 2012 the Pumas joined the annual national team tournament among the greats of the south.

In 2016, his second echelon,

, began to play the SuperRugby, a score of games against the best New Zealand, South African and Australian franchises.

It is a team created and paid for by the Argentine federation, with

, many of them for members of the national team.

At first he added losses.

In 2019 he was a finalist.

With players paid by the clubs, although they receive a complement in the selection,

.

Santiago Santos handles "50 or 55 players, three or four per position."

Those who have settled in France looking for a more professional environment must overcome the reluctance to give them up.

"With its 30 or 40 best players, Argentina can work 20 weeks a year; we, with the group of the best, can only work five; and with the larger group, about 10 or 12."

To accelerate the improvement, says Juan Pedro Brolese, it is necessary to play many games.

The CEO of Cisneros defends the Argentine model.

"The federation has to step forward and

, with a professional structure and exclusive players, that is the basis of the selection."

Suggest the Celtic League or a French League as a destination.

"The objective would be that", agrees Santiago Santos, "to have the best players with a contract with the federation, in a completely professional environment and competing, for me the ideal would be in the Celtic League", which groups together Irish, Welsh, Scots and Italians.

The Spanish coach points out the cost: "five million euros", more than the current budget for all activities.

"A challenge for Spanish rugby is to generate more resources because the teams we compete against have more money than we do," says Santos.

Again

.

Growth is tangled in a circle: without sufficient funding it is difficult to prevail on the lawn;

Without positive results, it seems difficult to reach this financing.

It is the convoluted progression of

when the path is steep, when the advance does not quite follow a straight line.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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