Rankings slump doesn't change Tiesi's belief in Pumas

Published on Monday 23 November 2009 22:57

WHAT a difference a fortnight can make. At the start of this month Argentina were ranked sixth in the world and were looking forward to building towards a bright future in which they would take rugby in their country to the next level by joining the Tri-Nations in 2012.

In contrast, Scotland were ranked tenth in the world, and even though the appointment of Andy Robinson as head coach had engendered some hope, a miserable recent record of just four wins in 15 outings since Argentina had knocked them out of the 2007 Rugby World Cup meant that any sense of Scottish optimism was balanced against caution.

Even after the Pumas slipped to a 16-9 defeat against England and Scotland disposed of Fiji ten days ago, there was still plenty of daylight between the two side on the ratings table.

Saturday turned everything in its head. Scotland's defensive heroics against Australia have catapulted expectations, while the Pumas slumped to a record 33-16 defeat to Wales. The tourists arrived in Edinburgh on Sunday evening knowing they are now eighth in the rankings, one ahead of Scotland.

Gonzalo Tiesi, who is the senior back in this youthful Argentine squad, says confidence has not been affected by his team's recent lack of success, and he has promised the side are looking to play a more expansive game than they have managed so far.

"Pressure is always there," said the 24-year-old centre. "It is more within ourselves. It is a healthy pressure because we want to win, we want to improve and we want to do well for each other. We don't worry too much about what other people think of us.

"We have been working a lot on our attacking system and what we want to do with the ball in hand. It has been going well in training, but we haven't managed to make it happen on game day – which is quite tough. We are working hard and we are moving forward, so hopefully if we keep working this week we'll see a different Argentina on Saturday."

He might just be telling the truth. With a threadbare fixture list and a lack of leverage over Europe's leading clubs, a long-standing problem for Argentine teams has been the small amount of time they tend to have together. The first time this side really met up as a squad was in the week leading up to their English match. But they have now had three weeks together, which Tiesi is hoping will make all the difference.

"We haven't been together long, which doesn't help, but we are used to that. It has been the way things are for a long time, and we have got good at making the time we have together count," said Tiesi. "We are confident in what we are doing, we trust our style, and hopefully we'll bounce back from those two defeats on Saturday."