Henry to bolster Argentine Braintrust

As Argentina prepare for the debut in this years expanded Rugby Championship, they have received a boost in the form of World Cup winning coach Graham Henry. Henry will fill the role of technical assistant in much the same capacity as Eddie Jones did for the Boks in 2007. Henry brings with him twelve years of test experience; he coached the All Blacks to 88 wins in 103 tests for a winning percentage of 85.4% . His vast expertise could tip the balance for the Pumas as they are working on refining their game and adding greater enterprise amongst the backs. Their depth is strong, the talent available.

 I have always wondered whether we are feeding a sleeping dragon who will awaken and bite someone in the backside (hopefully not the ABs) come RWC time.

Their forwards have generally been good but surprising not too many outstanding backs.

Here in SA we need some of their coaches to teach us how to scrum. We never really scrum our potential.

It's not so much that their backs are not good, rather that they have a predominantly forward orientated mentality. This requires the development of a culture of intelligent and functional backlplay. Here are a few quality backline players:

Nicolas Vergallo
Augustin Figuerola
Filepe Contepomi
Juan Hernandez
Marcelo Bosch
Santiago Fernandez
Gonzalo Tiesi
Horacio Agulla
Martin Moyano
Juan Imoff
Joaquin Tuculet

They have a healthy club game that is consistently producing very good players. The Rugby Championship will bolster that.

 

Argentina should defintely improve now. So yes watch out!

With him working with them for at least a couple of seasons, they have access to a highly astute coach with an enormous amount of test experience. If he can get those backs into the game more then Argentina have a realistic chance of winning this competition. They have arguably edge all three other sides in the set-pieces and bring a bit more attitude in their physicality. Very organized as well. They actually outplayed New Zealand in the World Cup in spite of very poor reffing and illegal tactics, backs included!

Yeah the game will benefit with his involvement with the argentinian team.  Last world cup they matched the ABs if not outplayed them for a few moments in the game.  Sixty minutes it took the ABs to finally breakaway from the pumas.  Man those pumas know how to scrum.  Looking forward to how the pumas progress in years to come.