The condescending comments coming out of Australia and New Zealand at the possible future inclusion of the Pumas in an expanded Tri-Nations competition hide the truth of the story inside Argentina itself.
 
Australian Chief Executive John O’Neill this week demanded the Pumas must “first get their house in order” and his New Zealand counterpart Steve Tew said: “They’ve got some significant and quite unique challenges in that all their players live overseas so it’s too early to say whether they would long-term join the Tri-Nations or not.”
 
These are what you might call somewhat grandiose remarks by gentlemen who run organizations that are struggling day and night just to make ends meet. And very often failing.
 
But what has really upset the applecart is the International Rugby Board’s demands that the Argentine Rugby Union put in place certain competitions and professional structures within their own country, before they can be considered for inclusion in an expanded Tri-Nations.
 
There are two significant spokes in this particular wheel. The first is that virtually all the best Pumas are based in the northern hemisphere with the English and French clubs or provinces in other countries. This means that, if they are going to play in an even longer Tri-Nations, which runs this year from July 5 to early September 13, they will be condemned to a 12-month rugby schedule each year. This is a policy fresh from the madhouse.
 
Clearly, they should be added to the Six Nations, so they can appear during the northern hemisphere season where they all play their rugby. Anything else stands common sense on its head.
 
But there is an even deeper difficulty involved. It concerns the mess that countries like Australia and New Zealand have plunged into since professionalism arrived in the sport. That is causing a huge hiatus between certain parties within the game in Argentina. And frankly, who can blame them?
 
A significant view within the Argentine rugby union revolves around this question: Why on earth would they want to throw aside their vibrant, strongly amateur, club-based game in favour of a professional one when you see the chaos, financial waste and the loss of the game’s values in so many other national rugby unions around the world? It is a very fair point.
 
Take England. The Rugby Football Union and the clubs have been fighting each other for 13 years now. At last, in July this year, a long term agreement that heralds peace between the warring factions, comes into play. But look at the trouble and bad feeling there has been over these years.
 
Wales have faced financial ruin as a rugby nation, the Scots are up to their necks in debt and even Australian Chief Executive O’Neill admitted recently the ARU are in severe financial trouble. Why would Argentina want to rush to join this shambolic bandwagon?
 
Within the last couple of months, Argentina sent a national team to play Chile in an international match. None of the senior Pumas, the likes of Pichot, Contepomi, Ledesma or Hernandez were available. But the quality and skills of the young Argentina players was said to be breathtaking. European clubs are already fighting for some of their signatures.
 
The strength of rugby in Argentina is in the amateur clubs. They have kids teeming out of them, all revelling in the sport as an amateur occupation. It is chiefly the senior Argentine players who play their rugby in Ireland, Britain and Europe plus the IRB who want their Union to opt for full blown professionalism. But the appetite for professionalism inside Argentina is weakening by the day, not increasing.
 
Unlike so many other unions around the world who had delusions of grandeur the minute professionalism arrived, bawling like some new born infant demanding everyone’s attention, the realists within the Argentine rugby union have their feet firmly on the ground. Rugby will never rival soccer in Argentina, it is not the popular game. The Pumas, however successful, won’t fill an 82,000 seater stadium, like Ireland, France or England. At best, something around 30,000 is far more realistic.
 
So how would a fully professional sport be funded in the country ? Would the IRB back their request for professionalism with a constant supply of cash? Of course not. Having imposed professionalism on the Pumas, the IRB will move on to other issues, leaving the Argentines to deal with the kind of mess that has bedevilled the game in most countries these last dozen years.
 
The debate continues to rage in Argentine rugby circles. But very significant numbers are now retreating from the professional option. And it seems to me it is not for the likes of Australia and New Zealand to preach to others about the merits of professionalism. What they have is no shining light for others to follow, very far from it.