Paul Lewis: Why Pumas rugby has slumped

Argentina's Los Pumas Joaquin Tuculet. Photo / AP.

The Argentinian man at the barbecue pushed a huge dinner plate at me, with a welcoming grin.

On the plate, large and varied bits of cow were present in barbecued form. My schoolboy Spanish wasn't adequate and my host had no English. But the raising of an eyebrow transcends international language barriers; he began trying to explain.

I remember chinculines - bits of highly barbecued and seasoned small intestine; anathema to an avowed offal hater. They were delicious. In Argentina, every bit of the cow is used at an asado (traditional barbecue) except the horns and the hooves and I'm not even sure about them...

It was 1985, the All Blacks were touring Argentina for the first time with a full-strength team, and it was obvious that, while it was a bad place to be a cow, it was a good place to be a rugby player.

This was underlined in the second test, drawn 21-21, with the All Blacks scoring four tries and the Pumas seven kicks at goal by the great Hugo Porta - four penalties and three dropped goals. The All Blacks dressing room that day was sombre; it was clear they regarded this as a loss.

That was no tyro team...it was the genesis of the 1987 World Cup-winning side with some great All Black names like McDowall, Haden, Whetton, Shaw and Mexted in the pack while Dave Loveridge and John Kirwan were in the backs along with Wayne Smith, keeping Grant Fox out of the test team at that time.

So why has Pumas (and Jaguares) rugby slumped when they seemed to have come so far - the national side entertainingly marching into the semifinals of the 2015 Rugby World Cup? Rated 5th in the world at the start of last year, they are now 10th and have lost 13 of their last 16 tests before this weekend.

The most common explanation is the Argentine insistence on not selecting players who pursue their career with overseas clubs. This robs the Pumas of genuine talent like their best player, loose forward Facundo Isa, winger Juan Imhoff (21 tries in 35 tests), leading prop Juan Figallo, and big-kicking first five/fullback Marcelo Bosch.

Add the loss to Europe of 22-year-old Patricio Fernandez, the man supposed to be the Pumas' next star first five, and four or five others, and you can see where the depth of Argentine rugby has gone.

Fine. Select overseas-based players - problem solved, say some. However, the Pumas' problems go deeper than that.

Argentina has plenty of human resources - nearly 500 clubs and about 115,000 players. New Zealand has 150,000 players in total, so the Pumas cannot say they do not have a well from which to draw. Australia would dearly love those numbers (they have 87,000 players in total).

However, Argentina does not have a professional league - and there isn't the money to start one (nor the rugby stadiums to host it). The Jaguares are it; there is no professional sub-competition (like our Mitre 10 Cup) acting as an education, feeder and talent stimulant.

Then there are the political differences. If you think the rest of this country hates Auckland, you don't know the half of it in Argentina. Political rugby power lies in Buenos Aires and you should hear what the rest of the country thinks of the portenos.

The BA clubs do not really approve of professionalism; the provinces do. An implied superiority emanates from the capital (or is perceived to be); some of the clubs there are steeped in old world elitism and conservatism - one still does not admit women members.

So mixing players from Buenos Aires with those from elsewhere can be troublesome - like internal problems besetting British & Irish Lions teams when home unions' players cling to nationalistic boundaries rather than gel as a Lions unit.

But the Pumas also seem a rugby team in search of an identity. In previous years, their mana revolved around the scrum, kicking for territory and for goal. The scrum was an almost religious experience, embodying their team-ness and their machismo.

Not unreasonably, the call was made they had to adopt a more expansive game if they wanted to beat the big boys- former All Blacks coach Sir Graham Henry foremost among those architects; it worked for a while.

But the Pumas' scrum is not the feared machine of past years. The Pumas hate the modern laxness of halfbacks putting the ball into scrums crooked. It is a dispiriting form of blasphemy to them; an attack on their manliness.

With their core skill undermined and focus going elsewhere, they often look confused; mistakes are made aplenty as they try to be expansive. Discipline - often on the edge in many Latin temperaments - often slips.

So has their world ranking. No matter what happened against the All Blacks, the Pumas have much work to do - on and off the field - if they are not to become barbecued on their own hot coals of division, lack of money and outmoded traditions.