Hernandez is back in the Puma squad to face the Kiwis. Don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing but either way he needs a big performance.

the puma's were very unlucky to lose this game. charge down try to south africa.

your right the 3 teams are all going for 2nd place, south africa should get it.
oz are as poor as japan or russia.
new zealand at the moment are in a class of there own
the lions will put a cricket score on them in all three test if the same coach is still in place.

A 16 all draw with South Africa! You gotta hand it to the argies that's one hell of a result especially if you consider the stats in South Africa's favour. If you look at the shape Australia are in to you'd have to give the Pumas the nod for beating them at home anyway. The 4 Nations suddenly became interesting again.

Really tough for the Argies, because the team which won them third place at RWC'07 (and now mostly retired (the likes of Pichot, Contepomi, Ledesma, Corleto, Leguizamón, Omar Hasan, Gonzalo Longo, Ignacio Fernández Lobbe etc, etc, etc...) would have been competitive home and away in this competition....

When you look at their squad back then and compare to now you can see that basically what's happened to Italy has happened to them and it'll take a good few years before they are back up to the necessary level to compete...

I don't think it will take them as long as the Italians just because rugby is such a big sport there were rugby was much lower down the feeding pole in Italy. Also there's some good players there coming up. I think there RWC '07 team was special but I have hope for Argentina to be a force sooner rather than later.

rossie wrote: from what ive seen of Hernandez imo he is a fullback not a 10 and definately not a front line kicker( opinion based on a limited knowledge of him admittedly). I think that Meireles of Exeter chiefs at 10 with fernandez at fullback would give pack the encouragement and platform they require to compete with the superpowers of rugby. even with this they will struggle but i dont think any of those teams will relish playing them in Argentina. I think the best they can expect is Italian style upsets at home occasionaly v AUs and SA.

Great to see them in it though. they produce too many good players to be left in wilderness.

Fernandez left his best Rugby back about three or four serious injuries and at least six/seven years ago. Shadow of the player he was back in early 2000's...

Really tough for the Argies, because the team which won them third place at RWC'07 (and now mostly retired (the likes of Pichot, Contepomi, Ledesma, Corleto, Leguizamón, Omar Hasan, Gonzalo Longo, Ignacio Fernández Lobbe etc, etc, etc...) would have been competitive home and away in this competition....

When you look at their squad back then and compare to now you can see that basically what's happened to Italy has happened to them and it'll take a good few years before they are back up to the necessary level to compete...

from what ive seen of Hernandez imo he is a fullback not a 10 and definately not a front line kicker( opinion based on a limited knowledge of him admittedly). I think that Meireles of Exeter chiefs at 10 with fernandez at fullback would give pack the encouragement and platform they require to compete with the superpowers of rugby. even with this they will struggle but i dont think any of those teams will relish playing them in Argentina. I think the best they can expect is Italian style upsets at home occasionaly v AUs and SA.

Great to see them in it though. they produce too many good players to be left in wilderness.

Watched Argentina yesterday making history taking their rightful place with the big boys of the Southern Hemisphere. South Africa were to much for them (also it didn't help that Hernandez had a nightmare in front of the posts). But fair play to the Pumas I can't wait to see their first game played in Argentina.