Pumas must let players go abroad

I HAVE never understood the rationale behind Argenina’s recent insistence on picking only from home based professionals in their Jaguares Super Rugby squad and the sooner they desist and encourage a few players to spread their wings again the better.

My gut feeling is that it comes from a strange – untypical – lack of self-confidence and now persists on account of that mental stubbornness and pride which usually serves Argentina so well.

To remain competitive in the Rugby Championship the Pumas blazers decided they must have all their top players under their control at all times so, among other things, there could be no excuses and no fingers pointed in their direction if things went wrong.

But that only makes sense if Argentina have two or three Super Rugby franchises, not one. Argentina have the volume of players but they just don’t have the commercial clout to support such an arrangement; nor is SANZAAR remotely minded to even consider such a notion.

So we have the status quo – too many good players with not enough opportunity to shine. It’s an impasse and the only way to circumvent it is to return to the old system and make it possible for those in demand to go and play elsewhere, which means the T14 and Premiership.

So what if there are odd instances when a player isn’t available for a Test?

The upside is a considerable pool of players well versed in different playing conditions, with stacks of first team rugby under their belts and rafts load of cutting edge ideas on the game and training techniques to bring back into the Pumas camp.

It’s that street fighting savvy, garnered from the French and English club game, that helped get Argentina to two World Cup semi-finals.

For all their talent and all their travelling the globe, there is a danger of Argentina becoming too inward looking and static.

In addition to that, Test rugby must always be a step up and special and the danger at present is that the Pumas/ Jaguares are one and the same.

The players must be getting heartily sick of the sight of each other.