El Problema Con Los Jaguares

On paper, Argentina’s Los Jaguares are a valuable addition to Super Rugby, but their first couple of months in the tournament have highlighted some potentially disastrous flaws in the team’s construction, writes Jamie Wall.

From the day the franchise was announced, everybody has loved the Jaguares. Finally, an expansion team that could actually compete. Finally, a time zone that meant you could watch away games while having Sunday brunch. Sadly, yet another excuse for commentators to lazily wheel out steak references and talk about scrums.

But, as we saw over the weekend, the one thing that is supposed to make the Jags so good is also the one thing that is already starting to screw up their season. In fact, it could screw up their entire existence.

The Jags are essentially Los Pumas in a different jersey. The jersey isn’t even that much different, given that it has Visa plastered all over it and a jaguar as a crest (because the Pumas crest is actually a jaguar too – long story). The same Pumas that made it to the semifinals of the Rugby World Cup, but also the same Pumas that have minimal depth, and only a few good players who actually live in Argentina.

The only way the Jaguares managed to get off the ground in the first place was for the Argentinean Union to institute an identical rule to the one implemented by the NZRU: in order to be eligible for the Pumas, you must play in Argentina.

That makes sense on paper. I mean it works in New Zealand, right? It means the national union can then have a guiding hand in who plays where, in accordance with what’s best for the national team. But the difference is Argentina has only got the player depth to support one team. Since the Pumas are definitely the more important team, players get protected for national duty.

Before the season started, it would’ve been seen as a safe bet to pick the Jags to beat the Blues at QBE Stadium. But they showed up with an under-strength squad and a 1-3 record. That’s now 1-4 and is safe bet to be 1-6 by the time they’ve left New Zealand. Hardly the sort of season story for a team that some had picked to win the whole thing.

The issue is obviously player depth, which Argentina simply don’t have. Nor do they have a second tier competition to supplement the Jaguares. Forcing the existing Pumas to play for them instead of picking up contracts overseas makes for an incredibly fragile system with few fringe players making their case for national selection. All it would take to decimate both the Jags and the Pumas is for a few key players to decide they’d rather forgo national duty for a lucrative contract in France.

To be fair, the Jags schedule once they get back from their overseas tour is pretty friendly. They still can very much make the playoffs and have shown what their home ground advantage can do by almost pipping the Chiefs a few weeks ago.

Which begs the question – how good would they be if they weren’t just using Super Rugby as extended Pumas pre-season training?