Would Two Argentine Teams be Competitive in Super Rugby?

Super Rugby is downsizing. The 2018 season will have 15 teams, down three from 18. There are a variety of motives driving the change, one of which is performance. This raises the question – would two Argentine teams be competitive in Super Rugby?

Comparative Performance
Los Jaguares completed their second season in 10th position. All five New Zealand sides finished above Los Jaguares. The Lions, Stormers, Sharks and Brumbies were the remaining teams to do so.

Los Jaguares’ return in 2017 was 7-8. The Brumbies made the Quarter Finals and finished on 34 competition points, one more than Los Jaguares. They did so despite having an inferior season with a 6-9 return. The Blues matched Los Jaguares with 7 wins but had a final record of 7-1-7.

The Argentine side is the only team to defeat the Lions so far in 2017. Moreover, the Johannesburg-based franchise is the only team not from New Zealand in the Semi Finals. The Chiefs, Crusaders, Hurricanes and Lions are the final four.

There were no matches between Los Jaguares and New Zealand franchises this year. Instead matches outside of the African franchise were against the Sunwolves and Australian sides. Los Jaguares defeated the Japanese side and went 3-2 against Australian sides.

The Sunwolves and Australian sides made up five of the bottom eight teams. The Southern Kings, Cheetahs and Bulls completed the list. The former two of the South African sides will play in the Guinness Pro 12 next season.

In 2016 Los Jaguares did not play against Australian sides. Instead they faced all five New Zealand teams. This was for a 0-5 return. Los Jaguares finished 15th overall, with a 4-11 record. The opportunity of playing Australian sides in 2017 undeniably contributed to Los Jaguares’ improvement.

The Brumbies home loss against the Hurricanes on Friday was the final match for Tomás Cubelli. The Pumas scrum half has now signed for the UAR until 2019. He returns from Australia’s best side but one unable to match New Zealand’s teams. The extent of this is reflected in the record of 0-26 this year. Amazingly New Zealand sides won every game.

Player Resources
Without Cubelli both Gonzalo Bertranou and Felipe Ezcurra were utilized as cover for Martín Landajo. In 2018 there will either be a casualty or a lot less game time for all with Cubelli now a Jaguar.

Perhaps, Argentina’s patient approach may prove to be shrewd. Consider not only Australian resources being over stretched but also Italy in the Guinness Pro 12. Benetton Treviso, Zebre and the defunct Aironi have all been lower-table performers.

There has been talk both past and present about a second Argentine team joining Super Rugby. 2019 has been marked as the year for this to happen.

The Crusaders have a 40-man squad while Los Jaguares in 2017 had a roster of 44, not all of who played. The Argentina XV is the national ‘A’ team but also the de facto second side for Super Rugby. Players have joined Los Jaguares from the team as required.

Felipe Contepomi has six Jaguares to face Toulon on Saturday. Felipe Arregui, Felipe Ezcurra, Juan Cruz Guillemaín, Marcos Kremer, Manuel Montero and Tomás Lavanini are all included in search of greater game time ahead of the Rugby Championship. 24 other players make up the 30-man roster.

Two Teams
Finding 80 players is therefore an estimated requirement. It would test Argentina’s ability to be competitive with two teams in Super Rugby. The table below outlines an example of what two franchises may look like at the present point in time. It shows that, firstly, there appears to be an even distribution across the two teams in most positions and, secondly, that both ought to be capable teams.

Assuming that a second team would be based inland in one of Córdoba, Mendoza or Tucumán the process can be facilitated. Los Jaguares would become a Buenos Aires franchise. The second would be inland team. For the purposes of this topic players have been identified and divided into belonging to either Jaguares or ‘Northern’ franchise. Utilized are recent or present players from the PladAR system.

This year saw Nicolás Freitas signing but not playing. With a second Argentine franchise the chances of the Uruguayan and others featuring would be boosted.

A derby would be added, giving new flavor to Super Rugby in Argentina. A final benefit would be additional opportunity for game time. This would underline and strengthen the UAR’s selection policy which blocks players based in Europe from playing for Los Pumas.

#	POSITION	JAGUARES	NORTHERN FRANCHISE
1	Loose Head Prop	Santiago García Botta	Facundo Gigena
2	Loose Head Prop	Francisco Ferronato	Lucas Noguera Paz
3	Loose Head Prop	Cristian Bartoloni	Franco Brarda
4	Hooker	Agustín Creevy	Gaspar Baldunciel
5	Hooker	Julián Montoya	Santiago Iglesias Valdez
6	Hooker	Agustín Goméz di Nardo	Roberto Tejerizo
7	Tight Head Prop	Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro	Felipe Arregui
8	Tight Head Prop	Ramiro Herrera	Benjamín Espinal
9	Tight Head Prop	Santiago Medrano	Enrique Pieretto
10	Second-row	Ignacio Calas	Matías Alemanno
11	Second-row	Ignacio Larrague	Diego Galetto
12	Second-row	Tomás Lavanini	Juan Cruz Guillemaín
13	Second-row	Franco Molina	Marcos Kremer
14	Second-row	Guido Petti	Pedro Ortega
15	Flanker	Lautaro Bavaro	Rodrigo Báez
16	Flanker	Tomás de la Vega	Rodrigo Bruni
17	Flanker	Francisco Gorrissen	Tomás Lezana
18	Flanker	Pablo Matera	Juan Manuel Leguziamón
19	Flanker	Santiago Montagner	Javier Ortega Desio
20	Flanker	Mariano Romanini	Anton Petrowitsch (Chile)
21	No 8	Santiago Montagner	Benjamín Macome
22	No 8	Leonardo Senatore	Santiago Portillo
23	Scrum Half	Sebastián Cancelliere	Santiago Arata (Uruguay)
24	Scrum Half	Tomás Cubelli	Gonzalo Bertranou
25	Scrum Half	Martín Landajo	Felipe Ezcurra
26	Fly Half	Joaquín Díaz Bonilla	Juan Cruz González
27	Fly Half	Santiago González Iglesias	Domingo Miotti
28	Fly Half	Juan Martín Hernández	Nicolás Sánchez
29	Inside Center	Juan Cappiello	Tomás Granella
30	Inside Center	Bruno Devoto	Jerónimo de la Fuente
31	Inside Center	Bautista Ezcurra	Santiago Mare
32	Outside Center	Santiago Álvarez Fourcade	Teo Castiglioni
33	Outside Center	Matías Moroni	Matías Orlando
34	Wing	Santiago Cordero	Franco Cuaranta
35	Wing	Rodrigo Etchart	Nicolás Freitas (Uruguay)
36	Wing	Manuel Montero	Luciano González
37	Wing	Tomás Passaro	Germán Schulz
38	Fullback	Bautista Delguy	Emiliano Boffelli
39	Fullback	Martín Elias	Fernando Luna
40	Fullback	Joaquín Tuculet	Ramiro Moyano