Pumas begin road to pros

Pumas begin road to pros

From correspondents in London, England
May 15, 2008

IRB president Bernard Lapasset is in Buenos Aires hoping to kick-start Argentina's march into professional rugby, an International Rugby Board official said.

“One of (his) priorities is to get Argentina right,” Mark Egan, head of the IRB's Rugby Services department, which fosters the game's development worldwide, told Reuters.
Argentina captain Agustin Pichot, who led the Pumas to third place in the 2007 World Cup, is using his myriad connections in the professional game to help the process along.

Lapasset, who began his presidency this year, travelled to Buenos Aires on Tuesday for three days of meetings with leading Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) officials.

Argentina have been bogged down in internal squabbles, holding up the release of IRB funds to set up high performance centres and build teams of professional players to ensure the continuity of the Pumas' excellent World Cup.

“The previous UAR administration didn't do their work... (discussions) all went nowhere,” Egan said.

“But there has been good progress under the new UAR board and we hope to have a strategic plan finalised by June.”

The funds Argentina are in line to receive over the next three years have grown to about $US8 million ($A8.5 million), the IRB announced earlier this week. That includes money that would have been released sooner against a viable UAR modernisation plan.

“The UAR has accepted that Argentina's future lies in SANZAR with the Tri-Nations as the ultimate goal,” Egan added, referring to the body grouping the big three in the southern hemisphere -- Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Pichot's role, said Egan, “is as part of the project team which has been tasked with overseeing the completion of the new strategic plan for the union.

“The team includes key board members and Agustin's input is as a technical advisor on professional rugby matters.”

Reuters