Latest News

All Black but all blue and white

Frankie Deges
Buenos Aires Herald
27th July 2005

Few in Argentina have a deeper knowledge of rugby and how to develop it than Mario Barandiarán. A National Development Officer for the Unión Argentina de Rugby (UAR) and Coaching Director for the Buenos Aires Rugby Union (URBA), this year he also became one of Marcelo Loffreda's assistant coaches with Los Pumas.

A former centre for La Plata Rugby Club, he was credited as being behind the huge change that club went through in the nineties, which peaked when they won their first-ever championship in 1995.

Los Pumas first came in contact with Barandiarán in Chile earlier this year and he joined the team in New Zealand last June. He had spent the previous fortnight at a coaching course further south in beautiful New Zealand.

For two weeks, Barandiarán attended a High Performance Coaching Clinic held at the International Rugby Academy in Palmerston North. Here he was provided with world-class rugby tuition and came in close contact and association with some of the finest former All Blacks.

The Academy is the brainchild of Murray Mexted, the former All Black number eight whose career is interestingly connected with Argentine rugby. He first played for the All Blacks against the 1979 Pumas and the last of his 34 tests was in Buenos Aires in 1985.

"The Academy was born out of frustration," he told the Herald earlier this year.

"All the knowledge my generation and I had was not being passed on. I got together with (former All Black fullback and coach) Laurie Mains in 1999 and started to devise what would eventually become the International Academy."

"In my days I was involved with players of huge knowledge and hardly any of them were getting involved after their retirement. I knew something was wrong."

Mexted soon attracted support from key people and began throwing lines with some of the game's best players. When he went to the New Zealand Rugby Union in search of support, the endorsement took longer than desired, but the Academy was eventually given the seal of approval.

The Academy then secured the use of the Institute of Rugby in Palmerston North, the centre of excellence for NZ rugby development - it has indoor training areas (33m X 16m area with a 12m ceiling and synthetic turf), a scrum room (with an hydraulic scrum machine), recovery pools, fitness and weights rooms, three rugby fields, library and video analysis facilities and enough bedrooms and lounges for a team. This is the "home" of the All Blacks.

Having travelled the world introducing his Academy to various rugby unions, the first course took place in 2002. It wasn't until June this year that an Argentine came to the Academy.

It was Barandiarán who came in close contact with rugby at its highest level.

"It was a very enriching experience. I learnt a lot and it was very well structured, showing how far behind we are in various aspects."

Barandiarán attended the two-week course which was two-fold - it included a coaching course (with 10 coaches from Chile, England, South Africa and New Zealand) and a players development course.

"We saw and learnt how to work with élite players through people such as Grant Fox, Josh Kronfeld, Ian Jones or David Nucifora - first-class rugby guys - passing on their knowledge to young players and to us at the same time."

One of the keys of the Academy is the possibility of drawing knowledge from top rugby names.

"I believe in specialization," explains Mexted. "And we have a specialist to teach every position."

Some of the names available would play in many World XVs - Richard Loe, Bull Allen and Springbok Balie Swart for the props, Sean Fitzpatrick with the hookers, Ian Jones for the locks, Mark Shaw and Jamie Joseph for the blindside flankers, former All Black captain Graham Mourie and Josh Kronfeld for the open-sides, Mexted with the number eights and a similar array for the backs, including former Wallabies Nick Farr-Jones and David Campese.

"Having these names involved allows us to challenge the players about their positions and they know that they are dealing with former players who have a deep firsthand knowledge of their position. The message comes across and the players remember it," says Mexted.

And Barandiarán agrees.

"With those guys around it is so much you can learn. In the first week we analyzed what the players were going through and worked in close contact with all of them."

The Academy wants to bring in more Argentines. But it is not a coaching course or a player's course. It is deeper than that.

"It is for the élite. It gives you weapons to work on but you have to be able to have a team of a certain quality to bring them into operation," says Loffreda's assistant coach.

"If I had come to find out the All Black's way, I would have returned empty-handed. What I was taught was to find my team's way."

"I can take what I learnt to the provincial coaches but at club level the message has to be different. I am telling the clubs that there needs to be a system in place, that coaches must study and analyse the game a lot more, but our lack of resources is a big problem we face."

"It is important to plan the practice session on the game plan."

For Barandiarán it was positive that he could take some on the things he learnt to the Pumas as they prepared to play the All Blacks. His course was funded by the New Zealand Embassy in Argentina.

Mexted caught up with Loffreda, against whom he played in 1979 and 1985, in Hamilton and have since been in touch trying to organize for more Argentines to come to Palmerston North.

"It would be important to have more participation attendants from South America as I firmly believe that the game will be richer for the experience," concludes Mexted who plans to be in the region early next year.