While the blue and white vertical stripes of local soccer icons like Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi are more numerous on streets and sidewalks across the country, the horizontal stripes of their dynamic and playful compatriots represent an equally rich and distinguished tradition.
In his latest book, Argentine-born veteran sports writer Rex Gowar provides a compelling and comprehensive account of the history of the country’s rugby team, from its first international tour in 1965, to its confrontation with the devastating effects of a pandemic. world. . Pumas: history of Argentine rugby The Anglo Argentina Society will celebrate it with Private book exhibition in London On November 3.
It is clear that there are a variety of culturally significant sports traditions and institutions in Argentina. What prompted you to write about rugby in particular?
Throughout my career, both with Reuters and the Buenos Aires Herald, I have covered a lot of soccer, but writing any kind of Argentine soccer history seemed like a pretty big task. This seemed more manageable, especially considering Pumas was born in 1965, just over 50 years ago. That doesn’t rule out going back a bit earlier to see how the English shaped Argentina’s sports clubs, but the half-century mark makes it a manageable time frame to write about.
The other thing is that it hasn’t been done in English before. There is very little written material on Pumas in general, and in book form they are all essentially Argentine.
How was Argentina’s adoption of rugby different from the adoption of other British sports such as football and polo?
At first, it may have reflected a lot of what was going on in the UK. In the second half of the 19th century, the British were also dealing with various forms of football. They asked questions like, “How do you play it?” “Do you touch it with your feet or with your hands?” They were still making the rules, and there were a lot of different directions.
A notable feature is that soccer has long been an amateur sport in Argentina. It is possible that when football became professional, fans looked to rugby clubs for the places that best suited their vision of life, closest to the environment in which they wanted to practice this sport.
How did the socioeconomic class variable affect the development and nature of rugby in Argentina?
I think it’s a complicated situation. There were definitely people who wanted it to remain an amateur sport. What that means is that there were a lot more people paying to play, rather than pay to play.
There is a very strong conservatism in Argentine society, and many Argentines who play rugby fit this broad description: a sort of middle to upper class social segment. Obviously, as time goes on and the game expands, more and more people from all sorts of backgrounds play it, but that’s the way things were in the beginning. When rugby turned professional in 1995, it took a long time for Argentina to catch up with the rest of the world. There were many people who struggled to figure out how to keep the fans going while competing internationally. At the time, much of the game in Argentina was underground professional, with players receiving small amounts of money through financial grants and subsidies, much to the annoyance of Argentina by the people running the game.
I mentioned the historical rivalry between Argentina and the United Kingdom in the book, specifically in reference to the turmoil that followed the Malvinas (Falklands) War. Do you think that sport has had a positive impact on diplomatic relations between the two countries?
Yeah, I’d say overall it probably is. I mean, Argentines at all levels of society think that the islands are Argentine. I grew up and went to elementary school in Argentina to learn “Las Islas Son de Argentina”, and that was it. We would all like a diplomatic solution, but it is very difficult at the moment. But in general, I think all sports have a positive effect in helping to keep a relationship civil, rather than hostile. Sport, and even rugby, is part of the special Anglo-Argentine relationship, despite the fact that the Argentines want to resolve the issue of the islands in their own way.
The Covid pandemic has been a particular challenge for the rugby community in Argentina. How would you rate the recovery?
Overall good. The sport has had a good time. It is clear that there were difficulties internally, in terms of not being able to play at the beginning of the pandemic. But from what I can see, the recovery is strong. There are some exciting domestic games taking place in Argentina, and a good degree of competition, with no one team significantly superior to the rest.
Internationally, it has been difficult because Argentina has not played at home since 2019. They are still in last place in the standings. [in the Rugby Championship, a southern hemisphere tournament that includes Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa]but that has been since they joined the competition in 2012. All things considered, it was one of their best seasons.
Are you optimistic about the future of sport in Argentina?
Because of the Argentinians involved in the rugby community, I think it will continue to grow. They are all very committed, hardworking and giving people, that is the nature of the average Argentinian rugby fan, no matter how good or bad he is as a player, and no matter if he plays. The group is very uniform. They have a lot of solidarity around the sport, which has continued to grow.
They have just reinstated local competition between provinces, which can only be good because of Argentina’s geographic isolation. Isolation was not a problem before the World Cup. Back in the amateur era, and in the early days of the pros, teams would go on long tours of a country, playing six to eight games. Argentina has become a very popular destination due to its hospitality and its famous brothers.
The development of the game will be a matter of time. Argentina really lost when Jaguares stopped competing in 2020, meaning there was no more Super Rugby in the country. The Jaguares had already reached the final in 2019, so it was a huge boost for the sport in Argentina. With the Jaguares, Argentina used to be able to keep their best players at home instead of letting them go to France, Italy, England and Ireland. This higher level of competition hasn’t really replaced it.
But all things considered, I think the sport still has a very good future.
* Pumas: history of Argentine rugby (2021); Polaris Publishing Ltd (Edinburgh, UK); 272 pages.
