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There are many questions that have and can be asked about including los Pumas into the Tri Nations. If that means we should include the Pacific Islands, time zones etc etc.
However, now is the time to give a very simple answer to a very complex question: Do you support Argentina being included in the Tri Nations?
Plenty of room in the thread to debate variables, but at least the poll will give some strong indication.
Pumas closer to Tri-Nations
By Wayne Smith
March 07, 2007
ARGENTINA's long-awaited entry to the southern hemisphere Tri-Nations series was given a significant boost yesterday, when the International Rugby Board voted to formally investigate the proposal.
The IRB and SANZAR (the organisers of the Tri-Nations series) for years have bandied the idea of pitting the Pumas against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in a competition on an annual basis, but the idea has taken on new urgency since Argentina surged to No.6 on the world rankings last year following victories over Wales, England and Italy.
Although that is the highest the Pumas have been on the IRB rankings, they could easily have gone higher, as they lost only 25-19 to world No.1 New Zealand in Buenos Aires and went within a point of toppling world No.2 France in Paris in November.
While the three Tri-Nations countries still are ahead of them, the Pumas officially rank ahead of Six Nations teams England, Wales, Italy and Scotland. It all made for an irrefutable argument when the IRB executive committee met yesterday in Auckland.
IRB secretary-general Mike Miller, in announcing a feasibility study, stressed the importance of finding regular competition for the only tier-one country that is not a member of either the Six Nations or Tri-Nations.
Miller acknowledge, however, that the IRB could not dictate to SANZAR on whether to admit Argentina,
"We have asked Argentina to do a business plan to show how they can grow the game there," Miller said.
The sticking points for an expanded Tri-Nations are the fact that rugby remains primarily an amateur game in Argentina, forcing the country's top 40 or so players to sign on with French or Italian clubs, and the fact the Union Argentina de Rugby is widely considered to be as much amateurish as it is amateur.
Miller said plans were afoot to establish an eight-team semi-professional South American competition involving six Argentine provinces as well as Chile and Uruguay, although the IRB executive committee did briefly discuss whether Argentina and Japan both might enter teams in an expanded Super 14 series.
The vexed, if intriguing, proposal for the game to move to a global integrated season also was discussed, with the IRB deciding to further explore three of nine proposals.