Sticking up for our youngest brother

Imagine a family of four sons. The two eldest are twins – one with brawn and the other with smarts and good looks – the third is an all-round athlete whose natural confidence allows him to compete with no fear against all of his brothers.

Finally, there is the adopted baby of the family.

In addition to the language barrier, he is further excluded by his roots. The only time the other three tolerate his presence is at family events and even then there are always sniping comments about his right to bear the family name with thinly veiled threats to disown him.

In Hollywood, this would be turned into an epic where the youngest would rise up against such adversity and not only prove his worth, get the girl of his dreams but also show forgiveness to his horrible brothers who would eventually see the error of their ways.

All this would culminate in a tearful scene of reconciliation and proclamations of undying and unconditional love.

Unfortunately for Argentina, they have yet to experience anything remotely near that kind of fairytale moment in the Rugby Championship. Let’s be honest – a draw in rugby is the equivalent of your parents proudly telling you they have bought your first ever car.

Your head fills up with dream car possibilities and you envision how popular you will become only to be bitterly let down by the sight of your rust-coated lemon with which they present you.

Argentina did experience a fairytale moment in 2007 that led to its inclusion in the Rugby Championship. The embarrassing realisation that a World Cup semi-finalist did not belong to a premier tournament led to their inclusion into the former tri-series.

It was not just the 2007 Rugby World Cup that led to their inclusion – it took five years. Then you realise that Argentina took on the might of the traditional southern powerhouse teams with no professional domestic league, its players scattered in Europe and no access to Super Rugby until 2016.

If you think South Africa has it bad with its overseas-based players, spare a thought for Argentina – who are caught entirely between two worlds.

This is exacerbated by the travel schedule of the Rugby Championship. Argentina has the bulk of its taxing travel in the first half of the competition. By the time they have their two home games, they are exhausted.

There is no plausible explanation why this itinerary should remain fixed. Surely alternating the current draw one year with a reverse draw the following year would be not only fairer but also interesting.

For one, Argentina could have two home games first up, New Zealand would experience the challenging away games first up and Australia would not have to be fixated on the Bledisole Cup every year. They could first worry about the Rugby Championship. South Africa would get to experience the advantages New Zealand do every alternate year in terms of building their championship towards the business end.

Imagine the Rugby Championship starting off with an Ellis Park clash between the Springboks and All Blacks and Los Pumas facing off at home against the Wallabies.

Argentina would be allowed to settle into the competition without worrying about the as of yet unaccustomed travel that you learn by being involved in Super rugby.

2016 cannot come soon enough for Argentina. Firstly, it will encourage players to return from Europe. Secondly, it will help with conditioning and learning to acclimatise. Thirdly, it will help them be more in tune with what is required to beat the top teams with preparation, tactics and execution.

Despite this optimism for the future, especially if the scheduling were to be alternated, Argentina are invariably the target of questions as to what they add to the competition and why they deserve to remain.

This is palpably unfair. Due to lack of preparation time and no real off-season, the June and November tours have whittled Argentina down to their current world ranking of 12th.

Italy, which is often similarly dismissed in the Six Nations, lies in 14th place. If they were to have taken the place of Argentina or any other team ranked higher or lower than 12th place, you could expect similar results. I would argue that the margins would be more considerable.

The blowouts that Argentina endured in their two opening games against South Africa have not really arisen until Rosario or La Plata in the final games and even then they have been much closer. They have regrouped well from setbacks and have been largely competitive in the bulk of their matches.

It is unrealistic to expect a team ranked considerably lower than the top three teams in the world to compete evenly and yet by and large this is what Argentina have achieved.

Are we that ungrateful and callous that we cannot see what Argentina brings to the others? Has anyone noticed the improvement of the Wallaby and All Black scrums this year? Every time the Wallabies play against los Pumas, there are calls from around the world that Argentina will destroy Australia in the scrum. That indeed Argentina will beat Australia.

The fact that Argentina have yet to do that is irrelevant. Australia prepare for those matches knowing that they have to work on their scrum. Lo and behold, if you work on something you get improvement.

We cannot attribute the scrum improvements solely to Argentina but certainly we can acknowledge the significant role that they have played.

More is not necessarily better. Argentina, however, have made the travel schedule fairer. South Africa, in particular, are no longer penalised as they are in Super Rugby. They have exposed the other teams to a different style of play that was not always the case in the tri-nations.

When you play Argentina, you know your set piece has to fire, you have to absorb their aggressive rush defence. They give an insight into how rugby is played in the Northern Hemisphere as their players are schooled in that kind of rugby.

When the big three head north in November, they are already familiar with the style of rugby they can expect.

I do not wish to paint Argentina or the European teams with a dour, attritional brush. You could argue Argentina made the 2007 World Cup semi final with ABC rugby. It was conservative but it was effective.

I watched that game in La Plata last weekend spellbound by the cutting backline moves. I certainly do not remember end-to-end rugby like that in such large patches in 2007. Juan Martin Hernandez was and continues to be a magician but Argentina have added a lot to their style of play.

They have a wonderful goalkicker in Nicolas Sanchez but their ability to offload and work backline moves that break through some of the stoutest defences on the planet is testament to how far they have come.

Let us not get caught up in results. It is too soon for that. Let us trace the evolution of Argentina and acknowledge what they bring to our teams.

Let us not treat Argentina as an outcast but accept them like an equal and acknowledge how they make us more rounded individuals just as they are becoming more rounded by their exposure to us. I like what they bring to our southern family.

Argentina are right where they belong and I am proud to call them my brother or as they say hermano. They are still growing up, but in a way we are still growing up alongside them.