Collision avoidance.

So we have a Southern Hemisphere shut out in the quarter finals of the RWC for the first time.

We have had just one Northern side in the quarter finals before but now Argentina have transformed their game to suit their “soul” to shock the rest of the world who really should have seen it coming.

So what have they done that has gained them success over the last couple of years? Whilst watching the South Africa v Scotland game (no I am not going to comment on the outcome) my Welsh husband moaned “This version of Rugby isn’t what I was taught and played for years!” “It’s Cr@p!” So I asked him what was so different? And after a bit of a tirade about rolling mauls, the basis of his objection is that players don’t try avoiding tackles, they look for the collision, so Rugby Union looks like Rugby League. Tackle recycle, tackle recycle ad infinitum. I struggled to argue to be honest. Then I read an article about how the Argentinians have changed from a dour 11 man game to an exciting, expansive and successful style of play and my husband’s comments came flooding back.

Agustin Pichot asked Graham Henry in 2012 the secret to success the answer was “You have to score more tries”

Subsequently coaches of the Pumas have transformed the way they play to a style that suits the Latin soul. Freedom, joy, flair and power. The forwards still have all the brute force they had, but added to that is an exuberance that reflects the need of Argentinians to be happy in what they do.

They have learned from their defeats to the best rugby nations that an all-round game is required for success and from consistently using skills at pace and looking for space not collision. Also being demons at the breakdown when the collisions do occur.

England fans, I have spoken to, say you have to play to your strengths and not try and apply other nation’s strategies to the England game. But have we got it all wrong? Our (England’s) strength is our set piece, well it was in the past any way, an 11 man game. Backs were necessary but not often used. Can we, like Argentina, find a way of reintroducing the type of skills my husband learned from playing 75 a side tag in the school yard? The dodging and weaving, leaving the opposition for dead, that the classic Wales teams of my youth demonstrated with such devastating effect.

The Northern hemisphere teams, both at national and club levels, have to look at how their rugby is played. The flair and fast paced execution of skills is a game more folks would pay good money to watch. How we get to that is a whole other question, Argentina found the answer without having a home league as a base to work from. Perhaps having players coming together from clubs all around the world added to their knowledge base, who knows, but they have found a way of playing rugby from their collective soul and a huge grin on their faces.

Can they shock world rugby to the core and win the World Cup? May be not this year, but they have torn away at the foundations of traditional rugby thinking and expectation. What else can they achieve?