Home > Rugby > Rugby Union > South African suspicions over Argentina's $2m jump start in Four Nations
by Greg Smith on 10 March 2010
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The International Rugby Board will provide $2m so that Argentina can join the Tri-Nations in 2012.
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The Southern Hemisphere's international rugby showpiece has long been the target of choice for fans who've bemoaned the lopsided way in which neighbours Australia and New Zealand have sought to share its spoils amongst themselves.
Finally, it seems the IRB have taken a major step with the grant to back Argentina's inclusion in a redesigned Four Nations tournament due to commence after the Rugby World Cup next year.
The 2012 plan has been widely welcomed but does leave me wondering about a few minor details.
My first question revolves around the somewhat meagre $2m and its comparison with the $20m the IRB apparently pumped into rugby development in the Oceanic region in 2008.
While developing talent on neighbouring 'feeder' islands practically on the doorsteps of New Zealand and Australia should not be scoffed at, I wonder about the relative value of the $2m for Argentina in 2012.
Secondly, I wonder whether strong trans-Atlantic bonds between South Africa and Argentina will eventually lead to the formation of a 'terrible twins' relationship to rival that of the famously incestuous Tasman twins?
I'm sure South African rugby administrators will be delighted to have the focus of rugby power shift ever so slightly away from the underlords Down Under which, after 2012, could be mapped as somewhere over the Indian Ocean, probably just east of Madagascar.
Heaven forbid SANZAR get the notion, using their normal expediency, to set up their headquarters in the banana cocktail paradise of the Republic of Mauritius and then send the IRB a $2m bar tab for Pina Coladas.
There are bound to be plenty of logistical issues in this new four-country, multi time-zoned competition, but it's worth the trouble.
Could the inclusion of Fiji and Samoa or Japan finally herald a new, more vibrant, Six Nations?
Which would you tune into, the Six Nations of the North or South and which would consistently provide the better quality rugby?
I know which one I'd pick, but that's probably only because of the free Pina Colada's they'd hand out at the door.
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