"Pumas - SANZAR News: From La Nacion's website (La Nacion is the 2nd most important newspaper in Argentina) and released in other media as well.

www.tercertiemporugby.com.ar www.prematch.com.ar www.ole.clarin.com www.lanacion.com.ar

SANZAR, the joint-union made of ARU, SARFU and NZRU, opened the door to the Pumas to be playing next year with the All Blacks, Springboks and Wallabies. The Pumas are not going to play in the Tri Nations but they will be playing the bye team in each round during the competition. That would assure Argentina to be playing, at least, one test match per year with South Africa, Australia and New Zealand each.

In the next hours, the formal invitation from SANZAR will be arriving to UAR offices. The managers from both the unions were meeting yesterday in Woking, England, where the World Forum on calendar and tournaments is taking part.

"We were asking for a competition, and here we got it. It was an effort by the management, and of course, by the players. Here, Argentina's subject is boiling all time", told Hugo Porta to La Nacion, from Woking.

SANZAR's offer has nothing to do with the IRB meeting itself and in regard of what's going to be decided this week. However, the fact that the Pumas will challenge next year the best three teams in the world will be an argument to make pressure and get Argentina in a major regular competition.

Though is still early to pour the details on this unique opportunity, by glimpsing at the fixture, Tri-Nations first match will be on July 5th, between NZ and RSA, as a consequence, the Pumas would be playing AUS, in a test-match which would not run for the competition itself. It should be as well established how many matches the Pumas will be playing, because Tri Nations has 9 rounds in non-WC years.

More than once the players have been favouring the idea of playing in the 6N instead of the 3N, because most of them play in european rugby, thus releasing players wouldn't be a major issue. But under this new scenario, once France's Top14 finishes (a couple of weeks before 3N starts), the players would be already released.

Another point is where would be playing Argentina as a home team in these matches. Cape Town was being thought as a 2nd home for the Pumas, as it's the nearest city from Bs.Aires belonging to any of the 3 unions.

(Seems that UAR doesn't want Pumas to play here. One of the reasons has to do with tickets revenue which should be much higher in any country than here, in spite of pitting a 60,000 crowd against both three during this decade. To give you an example a ticket to Pumas-All Blacks in 2006 cost me AR$25 - U$S8 ).

This is only an information being released by the newspaper and I've to acknowledge that no rugby portal or none of the rugby union websites has any news on this so far. So, of course, we've to wait. Let's see if this is going to be accomplished. By being here in the south, if this would be true, it's a nice step indeed Smile"

thx to maxsur from fira-forum for sharing the info!

"The Argentinean delegates worked tirelessly with the major Unions and the IRB to build and agree a blueprint for the future which through a four-year transition programme will lead to the full integration of Argentina into the senior international playing calendar. This would mean that Argentina will play the same number of top class Tests as the other Tier 1 Unions.

The Forum agreed that the Pumas’ future lies in the Southern Hemisphere. However, in the short-term there are major hurdles to the integration of Argentina into the Southern playing structure because the majority of their top players are based in Europe which leads to many practical and player welfare issues.

However, the UAR made a commitment to have its players contracted to the Union and for the majority of its players to be based in Argentina by 2012. The Forum agreed to assist Argentina to put in place pathways to get the players back to Argentina and to develop the next generation of home-grown Argentinean players, the majority of whom will hopefully play their top-flight Rugby based in Argentina. This includes looking at new competition structures in Argentina, the Americas and elsewhere.

This transition programme for Argentina includes:

• Steadily increasing the number and calibre of Test matches the Pumas play between 2008 and 2010 (2011 being a Rugby World Cup year) from the present six to nine per year.

• The Pumas to play four Tests in the June window (instead of the current three), three in the November window and two during the European 6 Nations window. This follows the agreement of the French and English clubs to release players during the 6 Nations window for the next three years.

• The progressive development of professional Rugby structures in Argentina during this period to develop player depth and to ensure that eventually the majority of top-class players stay in Argentina to play their Rugby so that Argentina can be fully integrated into the Southern top-flight Rugby playing structure. "

via irb.com