Tomas

Playing in Australia in Pacific Rugby Cup. Someone should stop by and say "hello" from the forum this Friday !!  

They take their name from the vast grasslands that produced Argentina's famous cattlemen, the Gauchos, and they are about to shake up Super Rugby.

The Pampas, who play a Waratahs A side featuring Cam Crawford, Rob Horne, Jono Lance and Tala Grey in Sydney on Friday, will form the core of the Argentinian team slated to join Super Rugby in 2016.

They are playing in Australia this month in the IRB's Pacific Rugby Cup and beat a Brumbies A side boasting Clyde Rathbone, Josh Mann-Rea and rising star Allan Alaalatoa last week.

Waratahs coach Michael Cheika rates the Pampas the best team in the competition, which is functioning as Australia's "Super B" tournament. NSW are using their Super Rugby bye week to help their second team prepare for Friday's clash.

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"It's quite a big game against the Pampas, they're the best team in the PRC competition. We're lucky we're going to have everyone available who's not been in our first team."

The Pampas have been around for a number of years, playing in South Africa's Vodacom Cup for four seasons from 2010. But the nation's likely inclusion in Super Rugby from 2016 has put the team front and centre in Argentina's development plans and prompted their move to the PRC.

New Pumas coach Daniel Hourcade, who coached the Pampas from 2010 until he took over the Test job from Santiago Phelan late last year, is in Australia overseeing the side's progress.

"The idea is to have this Pampas 15 and some of the players that now are playing in Europe [in the Super Rugby team]," Hourcade said. "We need them to play as many games as possible like this. We have come here to improve our level against the Australian way of playing, which is strong and dynamic. We need to be much faster and more dynamic."

Pumas halfback Martin Landajo is captaining the side, which also includes Pumas rookies Tomas Lavanini (second row) and Patricio Fernandez (five-eighth). Fernandez was named man of the match in their 32-23 win over the ACT XV, scoring two tries and adding a further 12 points off the boot. He and Lavanini are among a number of Pampas players considered the new generation of Argentina Test regulars.

A bid to lure home big-name players from Europe is also at the heart of Argentina's planning. Hourcade hopes the country's inclusion in Super Rugby will give some of the Pumas' best players - such as Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Juan Imhoff, Pablo Matera and Facundo Isa - a reason to stay at home year-round.

"With Super Rugby we will have at least 30 matches in a year, with 15 Super games, six Tests, six Rugby Championship Tests and some trials in June and November," he said. "With this ambitious schedule players should not have to move to Europe to find a higher [standard of] competition."

It will not bring everyone home, with the Argentinian Rugby Union (UAR) unable to compete with the salaries of some of the big French and English sides. But Hourcade hopes the development of the Pampas during the next two seasons will convince some to invest in their homeland's future.

"They will have to make a decision, go for a better salary in Europe - which is a reality - or trust in the project and be proud to play for Argentina," he said.

The Pampas play the Waratahs Gen Blue at David Phillips Field in Daceyville on Friday at 3pm. Entry is free.

 Saw the article - and am sorry we lost him as a member of this site because of sheisters.  

 Still living the dream aye numbnuts.

tomas was never a regular here, but IMO he will return at some later date, :o)

come back ole/cruz,

 Hmmm I think you'll be waiting a while somehow...

Not sure why it is so important for some posters to prove Tomas is who he says he is or not. Frankly what difference does it make?

 

If his posts are interesting great! But that is what it is about IMO. Posts trying to prove that we all are naive idiots or that we are distrusting idiots who ruined a good thing must be about something more than the issue of is he who he says he is or not.

 

I liked the guys posts & that is good enough for me. The rest is a distraction.

 Really, would you happy if some posted on here claiming to be you just_win, quoting you first and last name as long as they were a guy?  I had no problem with the content of his posts but identity theft is identity theft, lot of people are happy to bury their heads in the sand in that regard...I just prefer to know if someone's claiming to be an international rugby player that they're authentic, unfortunately to Ole Cruz with social media its so easy to reach out to these players, which is why the poster claiming to be Ole flounced methinks...

@poi e,

its not identity theft if hes actually tomas, and just cos he didnt abide to such an easy request of urs to prove his identity, doesnt porve that hes not either.

also on that note, he dosent have to prove jack if he dosent want to, believe him or not, its that simple.

besides, the sarugby.com mods have already confirmed that he was indeed an argentinan international rugby player, and i know u read that post, cos u asked for the information which confirmed this.
not to be snarky or anything, but im glad the mods didnt say anything.

 No he doesn't, but he should expect questions to be asked if he's not prepared to do so via something as easy as a facebook message, just remember Ole cruz was prepared to authenticate himself via a phone call, but not via Facebook for some reason, oh and by the way not to be snarky or anything but Moolaa had a contact in the chiefs system confirm that Tomaz could barely speak a lick of English...but feel free to believe what you want #aninconvenienttruth

 Yep Poi-e, there's gullible and then there's gullible!Maybe Ole Cruz is really Sione Lauaki's uncle!Logic may be able to confirm or deny this.....

@poie,

heres the one key fact u seem to be ignoring, the sarugby.com administrators have already confirmed that a blogger on sarugby.com does indeed play for the pumas.

"No he doesn't, but he should expect questions to be asked if he's not prepared to do so via something as easy as a facebook message,"
expecting questions to be asked, and actually having to answer those questions are two completely different things.

i admit im curious to know why he didnt adhere to ur simple request, but not doing so doesnt do anything exccept maybe irk those like u who have an almost insatiable need to know everything.
and like tomas said, he didnt come here to prove himself, so believe what u will.

again, sarugby.com administrators have already confirmed that a puma rugby player is/was indeed blogging here.

"just remember Ole cruz was prepared to authenticate himself via a phone call, but not via Facebook for some reason,"
but i noticed u didnt take him up on his video phone call, wouldnt that have been even better confirmation???

im sure tomas has his reasons why for not wanting anything to do with u on his facebook page, and yes im curious why.

"oh and by the way not to be snarky or anything,,,"
lolz, yeah right, :oP

"Moolaa had a contact in the chiefs system confirm that Tomaz could barely speak a lick of English"
i remember reading that, and again i would love to know what the go is, but that contact plus every other argument of doubt gets trumped by one simple fact,,,

the sarugby.com administrators have already confirmed that there is/was a pumas player on sarugby.com.

"but feel free to believe what you want #aninconvenienttruth"
thanks, but i was always going to anyway, #jealousmuch, LMAO,

BTW im taking it u didnt believe the administrators on this site???

 Right, so you're entire argument is based on the fact that the admins word is worth more than Moolaa's, that's fine I take it you've met the admins then - because both are just faceless bloggers when they post on here, why didn't I take the poster Ole Cruz up on his offer, well you can be anonymous on a phone call, you can't be anonymous replying from your own Facebook page, something the poster Ole Cruz knew...otherwise why would he flounce at the drop of hat, nobody asked him to leave, he'd already outed himself, what's the big deal in replying to a message, easier than a phone call isn't it, minus the international charges.
Until I get a reply from Toma's Lavanini I don't believe the poster was who he claimed, the cynic in me says that by putting an international poster in your ranks to pull in members/traffice might help get a better price for a website that was already put up for sale a year or so back...but whatever.
Look you're prepared what you want to believe based on a poster saying 'I'm Tomas' and an admin saying 'he's Tomas', me I'm not drinking that water. Enjoy the fantasy.

  

Poi-e, you said "oh and by the way not to be snarky or anything but Moolaa had a contact in the chiefs system confirm that Tomaz could barely speak a lick of English...but feel free to believe what you want"

It's a bit hypocritical of you to believe moola about his contact, and not believe Ole Cruz about who he really is.

Anyway, I don't know why you get you're undies in a knot over this. It's the internet, dude. It's a friggin gong show sometimes.

Umm, except Moolaa source was a 3rd party, just like Sas chooses to believe the admins as his 3rd party.  Just because it's the internet doesn't make passing yourself off as an international rugby player on an obscure message board that cool dude, that's my point, some of you believe he is/was who he was, I believe I (and others too) have a strong case to call bullshit, sorry if that rips your undies but that's how it is.

@poie,

u must not have read all the posts from olecruz, cos he said video phone, so u would have seen him in person while chatting with u.

i consider myself a blogging regular here and i believe that the admins are who they say they are.
every time this site has gotten a tuning, the admins have let us know whats going on.

like the send me reply to the thread notification, when sarugby first put that in, it was having heaps of problems, and folks here including myself were using these threads to communicate with the admins about the many bugs involved.
so ive got no doubt about the sarugby.com admins saying they are who they say they are.

ur right to be skeptic as i said originally back on mikeys thread back then, there was plenty of hmmmmm moments regarding tomas, but as far as im concerned, admins have put that to bed.

Was that a mobile number he provided Sas?  You could tell that from those digits?  I certainly don't remember any talk of facetime, if that was the case I would've dialled the number straight away.
Anyways Its your right to believe the admins, as is my right to believe the admins provided as much evidence of Ole Cruz's claim as he did, ultimately the one who couldve put this to bed is Tomas, or the person claiming to be Tomas, unfortunately he chose to flounce rather than authenticate via the one means that would've proved beyond all doubt who he was, strange given he showed a desire to authenticate hihimself in the first place.
Hell I even said I'd walk away from the board if he replied to the message I sent - he should be able to get them via his mobile too btw, then he'd be free to return without being hassled by the likes of me, he decided to not take up the offer.

The tooth fairy or Santa Claus never left any presents for Poi-e, and Sunday School was never the never the same after Poi-e left

 No he didn't Sharkbok, thanks for tearing that band aid off!!!!

My undies are already ripped. I didn't get any new ones in my stocking this past christmas. Just socks!

You need to chill, dude. There were like maybe 2 guys who actually believed him 100%. Everyone else just took it with a grain of salt. Which what my point was about it being the internet.

 I shall never 'chill dude' whilst there are people wrong on the interweb...

 haha - classic !

 Seems we have cruz failing to authenticate himslef and poooie failing to take up the video conference? Or maybe ou saSUE is wrong on the video conference bit? Anyone remember etc. If so can poooie still not make a belated contact.
I am however with poooie on identity theft. It does matter. Moles whether they be from kamp ss or someone pretending to be Thomas are dispicable. 

 OleCruz offered to give me his phone number for a call, he never posted his number but I'll happily take him up on the offer, Ole if you're reading this just bounce your digits across to me on Facebook, you can reply to the message I sent.

 I am guessing the guy is not up to the challenge. Well nailed pooooie. 
But what a disappointment this has been. Nevertheless better the truth than all this deception!

Maybe, maybe not, out of respect for SAS and others I'm not gonna say anymore on this..

 Don't think you're going to hear from Ole Cruz any time soon Poi-e!I've read all the above and can assure you that my information comes from a good friend who is in my rugby and cricket club, so he's a bit more than a "third party'.I don't really care if anyone's sceptical about that......all I know is that there's no way a 20 year old from Argentina can speak/write English that well.