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PARIS - Argentina finished third in the World Cup but their place in the international game remains an issue with no obvious solution.
The Pumas bowed out of the tournament with a memorable 34-10 victory over hosts France on Friday night to further claim they should be included in a top annual competition like the other leading nations in the game.
"We have our next test in seven months' time and those of us in the Top 14 (elite French club championship) won't be playing in it, we're going to find ourselves in the same place as before, without a Six Nations, without a Tri-nations, without a match," said captain Agustin Pichot.
Argentina have achieved their glittering run at this World Cup despite the handicap of far fewer matches than nations involved in the two hemisphere's leading competitions, making do with the test windows of June and November which amount to about six games a year.
Pichot also looked inwards to the domestic amateur club game, saying the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) must also act to develop a professional structure for the country's top players.
"The future is uncertain, there's a lot of politics in Argentina but I hope that Argentine rugby finds a way to take advantage of this," he added, referring to the Pumas' performances at the World Cup.
The Pumas' remarkable tournament has caught the imagination not just of rugby lovers back home and coach Marcelo Loffreda said the UAR should make the most of the game's new popularity.
"I think the UAR has to take advantage (of this) so that it's not just a step, not just a passing gust (of air)," said Loffreda, after a near-perfect finish to his eight years in charge of the team.
Former captain Lisandro Arbizu, who played in three World Cups between 1991 and 1999, said he believed Argentina were capable of building on their success in France.
"With the experience of professional rugby and the mentality of the lads coming up, we must prepare ways of conserving this third place and aspire to being first, because we have everything to do so," he wrote in a column in Saturday's Buenos Aires daily La Nacion.
"I think, after last night, there is no doubt about it," added Arbizu, one of Argentina's first professional exiles who with Pichot helped write the first chapter in the team's success story with a place in the last eight for the first time in 1999.
The International Rugby Board has said more than once at the tournament that they will take a serious look at the Argentine question before the year is out.
- REUTERS
