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Where to for Argentina?
This has been covered before however, as described below, Argentina are continually performing extremely well against all comers in the Top Ten on only the "table scraps" of assistance from the IRB with fixturing and matches with the higher teams.
Generally they have to fight the English Premier Clubs for access to their best players as well.
For me, I would love to see Argentina in an expanded Tri Nations, even if for time zone sake they needed to be based in Perth or Melbourne for example.
Surely the pressure is mounting for them to be allowed in either of the two annual major International competitions?
Argentina in new Six Nations plea
From correspondents in Paris
November 26, 2006
ARGENTINA coach Marcelo Loffreda renewed his plea for the Pumas to be accepted into an expanded Six Nations tournament.
After a just-finished international program which saw the South Americans beat England 25-18 and Italy 23-16 before falling to a narrow 27-26 loss to France, Loffreda believes his team deserve their place in the competition.
"We are hoping that the International Rugby Board (IRB) and the organisers of the Six Nations can facilitate our participation," said Loffreda.
"It's something that we have been asking for a long time."
Loffreda believes the three-match autumn series has given the Pumas further ammunition with which to fight their campaign.
"We are highly satisfied with the tour. We'll leave Europe with a reputation because we have claimed two important victories and suffered just one narrow defeat."
Inspirational skipper Agustin Pichot also insisted that Argentina deserves to be playing more international matches on a regular basis.
"I think the rugby world must consider the future of the Argentinian team," said Pichot.
"Sometimes we only play four matches a year. We won't be playing again together for seven months for the start of the World Cup.
"We were ready to beat England and Italy and we beat them. We did everything to try and beat France, the second best team in the world, and we lost by just one point."
Agence France-Presse