Rugby World Cup 2015: Argentina's Six Nations snub vindicated

Argentina players celebrate their win over Ireland. Photo / Getty

Argentina is trumpeting its stellar Rugby World Cup campaign as vindication of the decision to turn its back on Europe's vaunted Six Nations tournament in favour of regular competition against the All Blacks, Wallabies and Springboks.

Driven by how many of its players were based in Europe, Argentina approached the Six Nations committee in 2007 after reaching the World Cup semi-finals for the first time, virtually begging to be allowed to join the northern hemisphere tournament.

But they were spurned by the European nationals and instead turned their focus towards Sanzar's Rugby Championship.

It has proved an inspiring decision according to Argentina assistant coach Pablo Bouza.

Playing in the Sanzar competition had helped lift Argentina's fitness and skills and reduced their emphasis on set piece dominance. Their progress has been contrasted with Italy who have made no meaningful progress at World Cups since they joined the old Five Nations at the start of the century.

"I don't think we would have made as much progress had we joined the Six Nations, especially in the way our style has developed," said Bouza after the Pumas' 43-20 quarter-final success over Six Nations champions Ireland. The Rugby Championship has been great for us - it was tough at the start and we had to learn - and from next year we will have a team in Super Rugby.

"It is a different style to the Six Nations. When we tour Europe in the autumn, the pitches are slow and it is tough to get quick ball to play with. We struggled last year after beating Australia in the Rugby Championship and lost to Scotland. We used to play New Zealand every six or seven years but we have faced them nine times since 2011. As players and coaches we learn every time we play them and the Rugby Championship is good for our style of play because it is all about getting quick ball."

Bouza said the Pumas were aware of growing excitement in Argentina over their performances.

"They say that people back home are going crazy but we are just trying to focus on preparing for the next game," said Bouza. "The performance against Ireland was the best since Daniel [Hourcade] took over as coach and said he wanted us to play open rugby. We had a great opening 20 minutes, then suffered a yellow card and Ireland came back strongly. The final 20 minutes, when the bench came on, was a difference for us. Our goal at the start of the tournament was to make the quarter-finals and then to progress as far as we are able."

Argentina lost 34-9 to Australia in Mendoza in their most recent encounter last July but defeated the Wallabies 21-17 at the same venue a year earlier.

"Australia are one of the best attacking teams around and they are very hard to defend against because they have different ways of playing," said Bouza. "They had a tough game against Scotland but still won. I think every match is 50-50 at the start but we know we are going to have to be at 100% to beat them."