Argentina winger Gonzalo Camacho tells JOHNNY WATTERSONwhy Sunday's Test against Ireland is so important

ARGENTINA MIGHT look at the Ireland squad Declan Kidney announces tomorrow and feel that without Rob Kearney, Luke Fitzgerald and Rory Best the hosts are wounded for a match expected to be defined by the teams squabbling for inches.

From Felipe Contepomi’s position as captain, that can only be a good thing. The Argentina outhalf played for long enough with the two Leinster players, Kearney and Fitzgerald, to know their worth. But he must also look at his own side and see two gaping holes, one which he will fill in the absence of Juan Martin Hernandez and another in the pack, which is without backrower Juan Manuel Leguizamon.

Leguizamon was cited after his club Stade Français’s Top 14 defeat at Stade Toulousain in August, when he was found to have made contact with the eye area of Jean Bouilhou. The 27 year-old was banned for 80 days despite Bouilhou sending a letter to the disciplinary commission exonerating him of the charge.

Hernandez, who has been plagued with injury in recent months, hurt his hamstring playing for Racing Metro in his latest setback, which ruled him out of all the autumn Tests. The “Magic Man”, as he is called, has no peer on the team.

But there are no tears from Argentina. Their lot before they enter the Tri-Nations in 2012 is to do what they have always done and use their limited programme to try to accelerate progress.

The IRB have committed €7.5 million for their entry into the Tri-Nations up to 2015 on the condition Argentina provides all of their best players for the tournament, while the Southern Hemisphere unions have requested the IRB to amend rule nine, which governs international player availability. Argentina need to start along a road now to be hot in two years’ time or they could be the catalyst for the biggest failed experiment in rugby.

“They are two very important players. Number 10 (Hernandez) is a dream 10,” says winger Gonzalo Camacho, who played against France last weekend but makes way for Horacio Agulla on Sunday.

“Every team who sees him play wants to play with him. Leguizamon, he is a very physical forward but we are trying to play how we can at the moment. We are doing very good. We have to adjust.”

Sunday’s match with Ireland is not just a roll-up friendly for Argentina but a rare chance to competitively develop before the World Cup and their Tri-Nations baptism. With no regular top-class competition, the match assumes a significance for the visitors that is not necessarily shared by Ireland.

“Ireland and England and France . . . I play in England (Harlequins) so I see the English players going into camp once a month, for three days and training together,” explains Camacho. “We don’t have that. The rules in the RFU or IRB are not legal to release us to go. That is a negative point for us. But we are doing everything we can, putting everything we can into training to try and make sure those points don’t count against us. We are at a disadvantage. But we try not to see that part and put in more into training maybe than they do.

“It is a huge disadvantage. They can play each other more than us. They play six, 12, how many matches? – 18 matches in a year? It is a great advantage for Ireland but they have to try and manage that as well.”

Camacho is not complaining, although Argentina have always been frustrated by the unsteadying effect of their geographical isolation and historically, an outrageous indifference to that difficulty. An amateur club system in a country over 30 times bigger than Ireland and with a population of 40 million has militated against them. Yet the Pumas have a better World Cup record than Ireland since 1999. Argentina’s run has been group stage in 1999, quarter-final in 2003, and semi-final in 2007, compared to Ireland’s group stage in 1999, quarter-final four years later and group stage again in 2007.

A world ranking of third for Argentina after the 2007 competition should have rattled cages. But it was Italy that barged through the Six Nations gates long before Los Pumas. “Yes, it (Sunday’s Test against Ireland) is very important for us because we have six games only in the year to play together, maybe seven,” says Camacho. “This is the last November game. We have some more in June, but it is going to be very important for us to finish in a positive way.”

The assumption is players will be released by the clubs according to the IRB proposal to run the new Four Nations from mid August through September. Camacho is cautious about the issue. “We will see,” he says smiling. “After the negotiations we will see.”