Pumas have been lifted by Ledesma

ARGENTINIAN international rugby was in turmoil when Scotland arrived to meet their national team last summer.

Immediately before their arrival, in the wake of hefty defeats in both matches of a two Test series with Wales, their coach Daniel Hourcade had announced that he would be resigning from his post after the Scotland match.

During his five-year reign Hourcade had overseen a campaign which took them to a deserved placed in the semi-finals of the 2015 World Cup, the nucleus of his squad having been players he had developed in their domestic game.

However, their inability to build on that World Cup performance, winning just two matches of the dozen played in 2017 and just one of the Rugby Championship matches they had played against New Zealand, South Africa and Australia in 2016 and ’17, had seen pressure build. Clamour was consequently growing for the reins to be handed to former Pumas captain Mario Ledesma who had been doing fine work with the Jaguares side which represents Argentina in Super Rugby and, for all that they have won only another two matches since that loss to Scotland, there has been a significant improvement in their performances.

“We began the year with Mario [Ledesma] and had a great season with the Jaguares and then we lost all three games to European nations [Wales, Wales, Scotland]. We had three bad games and that one against Scotland was really bad, we don’t want to repeat,” said Argentine winger Sebastian Cancelliere.