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Opinion
COVID-19 left issues that still persist in the high-performance competition in the southern hemisphere.
The suspension of Super Rugby devastated the South African franchises and did the same with the Argentine Jaguares, who were unable to enter level competitions that would allow them to retain their talents.
This detonated in a drop in the sports performance of Los Pumas, who had to go back to a state of affairs where their players were distributed in the four cardinal points.
Reconsidering the game of Los Pumas is today a priority for their new coach, Michael Cheika.
We all know that games are won with points. The most deficient aspect of the game in the Mario Ledesma era was the low attacking performance.
During the 2021 campaign, with 12 matches played, only 29.5 per cent of the visits to opposition’s 22-metre zone were converted into tries.
That is truly alarming if you take into account that we had levels of effectiveness of 14 per cent in the Rugby Championship, the main hemispheric competition in Argentina.
A decreasing degree of cohesion resulted in unstable sports performance for Los Pumas, since Argentina has today the largest number of its players operating outside the country and that ingredient brings great instability when formulating a competitive team.
Precisely, the lack of cohesion in the axis of game distributors nine-ten-12-13, accentuated by Mario Ledesma’s work program that did not consolidate a proposal based on the stability of the game creators, contributed uncertainty in the fight for the positions and detracted from the depth that Los Pumas once displayed.
The axis of Tomas Cubelli, Santiago Carreras, Jerónimo de la Fuente and Matías Moroni was repeated only 25 per cent of the times during 2021.
But complications arose when trying to improvise a playmaker in Santiago Carreras, who usually plays as a wing or fullback in his European destination.
Today reality hits hard at home for Los Pumas with the urgent call to build a game model that is sustainable over time and flexible to ensure the road to the 2023 World Cup.
But the old problems could condition the new coach.
(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
The Pumas have shown a certain trend in stabilising their defensive system since 2020, as well as in the breakdown, whose trend ranges between 94 per cent and 96 per cent effectiveness.
But this is not enough, since the deficit lies in the impossibility of finding important variants of attack that allow complementing the one-three-three-one pattern, frequently used with greater dynamism and unpredictability.
The defence will be essential to sustain Los Pumas and from there the entire structure of the game should be built, along with an improvement in discipline.
During 2021, Argentina conceded 157 penalties (13 per game), which at the Test match level is a difficult number to maintain and incredible work material for the benefit of the opponents.
But the pending account for Los Pumas continues to be securing and obtaining balls both in scrums and lineouts.
(Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)
The scrummaging of Los Pumas worries everyone after the 77.8 per cent effectiveness shown in the autumn series in 2021 that made any quality attack originating from that platform impossible.
The lineout also doesn’t look good at 85 per cent accuracy. Both facets of the game will need to be quickly deconstructed for the July friendlies in Argentina and the upcoming Rugby Championship.
The reconstruction of Los Pumas’ game is possible considering that the limitations they face are hard and real.
But facing this year in Argentina are Scotland (three Tests), Australia (two Tests) and South Africa (one Test), something that had not happened for almost three years.
That could push things down a more urgent path.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.