Rugby Championship preview: Argentina to ‘struggle’ to avoid wooden spoon as the Felipe Contepomi era truly begins

In the first of our Rugby Championship previews, we take a look at last year’s third-placed team, Los Pumas. 

Argentina have never won the Rugby Championship, and have finished bottom a record nine times since 2012; but can this be the year they upset the apple cart?

Last year

Argentina haven’t had the best of times in the premier southern hemisphere competition, but since 2021 have slowly begun improving.

Los Pumas lost all of their fixtures in 2021, but a year later went on to win two of their six games in the tournament. In 2023, they finished with the exact same percentage of 33% as they did in 2022, but due to the shortened format ahead of the World Cup only won one game.

Their Championship began with a home clash against the All Blacks, who inflicted a heavy 41-12 defeat on Michael Cheika’s side. The All Blacks raced into a 31-0 half-time lead thanks to scores from Dane Coles, Ardie Savea, Jordie Barrett, Rieko Ioane and Aaron Smith, and despite a stronger showing in the second 40 New Zealand proved too much.

In round two, they responded in the best possible way with a 34-31 win over the Wallabies. Los Pumas had to fend off a late Australian resurgence in the final 10 minutes, but ultimately held on for their first, and only, win of the tournament.

Rounding off their Rugby Championship campaign was a tough visit to South Africa, and they narrowly missed out on securing a second victory as they slipped to a 22-21 defeat. The visitors pushed South Africa all the way in an enthralling game, but it took two late scores from Mateo Carreras and Gonzalo Bertranou to secure a deserved losing bonus point.

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This year

Now restored back to the usual six matches, Argentina will be in for a much harder task of avoiding bottom.

They begin the Championship just as they did last year with a visit to New Zealand, where they take on the All Blacks in the opening two rounds.

Things get slightly easier from here, as they welcome the Wallabies to South America. They have beaten Australia on the previous two meetings in the Rugby Championship, but can they make it three on the spin?

Rounding off their tournament is a tough trip to South Africa for two matches with the Springboks. Los Pumas haven’t beaten the back-to-back world champions since the 2018 Rugby Championship, but pushed them right to the wire in their previous tournament meeting so could view this as a good opportunity to beat the Boks.

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Players to watch

With the fitness of long-standing captain Julian Montoya in doubt, star back-rower Pablo Matera could be the man to lead his nation into battle.

Matera is one of those players who lets his actions do the talking, but boy are they impressive. He is such a physical player on both sides of the ball, and thrives in the contact area. The biggest compliment you can pay him is also the fact his absence in the World Cup was obvious, with his side not packing the same amount of punch in the tight.

Elsewhere, Tomás Albornoz is certainly one to keep an eye on this tournament. He has been a bit part player since his debut in 2022, but he made the most of his first start for his country with an impressive display in the mammoth 79-5 win over Uruguay; where he grabbed four assists and slotted eight conversions.

The scrum is always an important part of Argentina’s game plan, and Mayco Vivas and Eduardo Bello will once again be the key to the success in this area. The pair were incredibly dominant during the French Tests, but coming up against the full-strength Springboks, Wallabies and All Blacks packs will be a much bigger ask.

Prospects

Argentina have made some decent progress in the Rugby Championship since they joined SANZAAR, but will know they need to keep up this progress with at least two wins as a minimum standard; but will they get it?

Heading away to both South Africa and New Zealand will be such a huge ask for Felipe Contepomi’s men, and it could be too much to ask for wins there. We shouldn’t rule it out though…

The prospect of facing Australia at home again should be the block they target.

During their two Tests against Wales, the maul proved way too much for the Wallabies to handle (which could play perfectly into Argentina’s hands), but yet Joe Schmidt has made clear progress with the his new side and they seem a completely different prospect to what they were heading into last year’s Rugby Championship.

They also have a home fixture against the Springboks in the final round, which could give them some hope of another win.

It’s an incredibly competitive Championship, and Argentina could struggle to avoid another year at the bottom of the pile. Fourth.

Fixtures

Saturday, August 10 v New Zealand (SKY Stadium, Wellington)
Saturday, August 17 v New Zealand (Eden Park, Auckland)
Saturday, August 31 v Australia (Estadio Jorge Luis Hirschi, Buenos Aires)
Saturday, September 7 v Australia (Brigadier Estanislao Lopez Stadium, Santa Fe)
Saturday, September 21 v South Africa (Estadio Unico Madre de Ciudades, Santiago)
Saturday, September 28 v South Africa (Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit)

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