Ireland has been afforded the honour of opening the eight team Invitational Under-21 Championship in Argentina when they take on France at the Buenos Aires Cricket and Rugby Club on Saturday. The tournament will be contested by the best underage teams in world rugby and represents an ideal testing ground for Ireland's elite young players.
Five different grounds will be utilised to stage the tournament, all within the confines of Buenos Aires. The Argentinian Rugby Football Union (UAR) are delighted to be hosting the event: their main preoccupation at present is the weather rather than the logistics of the championship. Argentina's capital city has been flooded by a deluge of rain for the past three days, culminating in a thunder and lightening storm on Monday night.
The grey skies continued to weep yesterday but the prognosis for the weekend is for more clement weather. In a country whose primary allegiance in sport is to their national soccer team - last night's television was full of post-mortems regarding Argentina's demise at the hands of Brazil in the Copa America - rugby is still popular and the expectation is that the under-21 championship will be well attended.
Necolas Basdevios, director of communications for the UAR, admitted: "It is fair to say that soccer is by far the most popular sport in this country but in rugby we have a tradition of doing well at underage level. In the corresponding tournament last year in South Africa, Argentina reached the final before losing to Australia.
"The level of expectation, especially as the tournament is in Buenos Aires, will be high. We have been promoting heavily the tournament over the past couple of weeks and the response has been very good. Those who wish to see the matches will simply pay at the venues. I don't think that the recent disappointment of the Pumas losing two tests to Wales will have a bearing on the attendances.
"Argentina has a good record at underage level having won the FIRA under-19 World Cup a couple of times." Argentina is in Pool A alongside Ireland, France and New Zealand.
The New Zealand Colts boast five players with Super 12 experience. They were among the first teams to arrive, landing in Buenos Aires on Monday evening on the same Aerolinas Argentinas flight as the Australian squad.
The Ireland squad trained yesterday before boarding their flight to Argentina. They are expected in Buenos Aires later today, along with Wales and England. The latter two find themselves in Pool B alongside Australia and South Africa.
The late defection of Ciaran Scally, Cormac Dowling and Geordan Murphy, coupled with the absence of six other players because of age restrictions, is obviously a handicap but one senses that the short-term goals for the IRFU centre on individual rather than collective performances. The likely arrival of senior coach Warren Gatland, currently in New Zealand, means that one or two players could yet force their way into contention for the senior World Cup in October.
