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Juan Imhoff on his ongoing Los Pumas abscence

Juan Imhoff gets a dose of the feels (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Juan Imhoff says the constant strain of having to operate in a COVID bubble away from home means he is unlikely to be pulling on the Argentina jersey any time soon and is even debating his availability for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.

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The wing withdrew from this season’s November internationals due to coronavirus restrictions as the Pumas continued their difficult life on the road in the middle of a pandemic. They have played all their games away from home since August 2019 with players living in hotels during Test camps to reduce the risk of contracting Covid-19.

The 33-year-old did not play in this year’s Rugby Championship staged in Australia or the November tests, opting to stay with his club Racing 92 where he has delivered world class play since 2011.

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Imhoff told AFP: “For me, the bio-secure bubbles, the hotels, that Argentina are always the away team, that there’s no political weight so that we’re like the other nations, it’s bad for your physical and mental health.

“I would not enjoy rugby at all if I wasn’t good. So I came back to basics, to look after myself, my mental and physical health, so I can get back to my best. If Argentina need me I’ll be there.

“It’s difficult, the results aren’t coming. What’s worrying, is that we haven’t found an identity on the field, it will come because there are players who are very talented, they’re a team that work a lot.

“They just have to fine-tune things. There’s a lack of coordination, especially with the end of Super Rugby for the Jaguares. It’s not one detail why Argentina aren’t good right now, there are a lot of things.”

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Imhoff has won 33 caps and featured at two Rugby World Cups but does not know if will be with the team in France in 2023 where the Pumas will tackle a pool containing England, Japan and Samoa. “Honestly, I’m not thinking about it. I haven’t asked myself the question,” he said.

“I need to talk with my family. International rugby is a consequence of everyone’s level of performance. It’s not you who decides.”

There is also the question of where he will be playing next season as his Paris club contract is ending and he added: “It’s difficult to talk about that. I don’t know anything. I have an incredible affinity with this club. My whole family is linked to this club. It’s where I’m at home, I’ve never thought of leaving. I want the best for the club, it’s one of the best in the world.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I rated Lowe well enough to be an AB. Remember we were picking the likes of George Bridge above such players so theres no disputing a lot of bad decisions have been made by those last two coaches. Does a team like the ABs need a finicky winger who you have to adapt and change a lot of your style with to get benefit from? No, not really. But he still would have been a basic improvement on players like even Savea at the tail of his career, Bridge, and could even have converted into the answer of replacing Beauden at the back. Instead we persisted with NMS, Naholo, Havili, Reece, all players we would have cared even less about losing and all because Rieko had Lowe's number 11 jersey nailed down.


He was of course only 23 when he decided to leave, it was back in the beggining of the period they had started retaining players (from 2018 onwards I think, they came out saying theyre going to be more aggressive at some point). So he might, all of them, only just missed out.


The main point that Ed made is that situations like Lowe's, Aki's, JGP's, aren't going to happen in future. That's a bit of a "NZ" only problem, because those players need to reach such a high standard to be chosen by the All Blacks, were as a country like Ireland wants them a lot earlier like that. This is basically the 'ready in 3 years' concept Ireland relied on, versus the '5 years and they've left' concept' were that player is now ready to be chosen by the All Blacks (given a contract to play Super, ala SBW, and hopefully Manu).


The 'mercenary' thing that will take longer to expire, and which I was referring to, is the grandparents rule. The new kids coming through now aren't going to have as many gp born overseas, so the amount of players that can leave with a prospect of International rugby offer are going to drop dramatically at some point. All these kiwi fellas playing for a PI, is going to stop sadly.


The new era problem that will replace those old concerns is now French and Japanese clubs (doing the same as NRL teams have done for decades by) picking kids out of school. The problem here is not so much a national identity one, than it is a farm system where 9 in 10 players are left with nothing. A stunted education and no support in a foreign country (well they'll get kicked out of those countries were they don't in Australia).


It's the same sort of situation were NZ would be the big guy, but there weren't many downsides with it. The only one I can think was brought up but a poster on this site, I can't recall who it was, but he seemed to know a lot of kids coming from the Islands weren't really given the capability to fly back home during school xms holidays etc. That is probably something that should be fixed by the union. Otherwise getting someone like Fakatava over here for his last year of school definitely results in NZ being able to pick the cherries off the top but it also allows that player to develop and be able to represent Tonga and under age and possibly even later in his career. Where as a kid being taken from NZ is arguably going to be worse off in every respect other than perhaps money. Not going to develop as a person, not going to develop as a player as much, so I have a lotof sympathy for NZs case that I don't include them in that group but I certainly see where you're coming from and it encourages other countries to think they can do the same while not realising they're making a much worse experience/situation.

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