Argentina coach wants World Rugby to review residency rule

Argentina head coach Daniel Hourcade has urged World Rugby to review the residency rule to not allow teams make unprecedented use of it.

Currently, for a foreign player to play for a nation other than his birth, he has to be a resident of that country for a minimum of three years. In the 2015 World Cup in England, Argentina were the only team without a foreign-born player in their squad.

World Rugby's vice-president and former Argentina star Agustin Pichot has been pushing for the residency years to be stretched to five years and Hourcade was in complete support of it.

"I agree with him, with Gus (Pichot), we don't suffer that situation so it's difficult to talk about it for us, because we never have players born in other countries in our team," said Hourcade.

"But if players qualify on residency there should be a strong relation between the player and the country.

"There should not be any misuse by the country for their own advantage.

"We have seen that from one World Cup to another World Cup, players representing different countries.

"But I think they have to show there is a strong relation between that player and that country to be selected.

"It's difficult to understand that some countries with one million players have to go after players from other countries."

Nearly 135 players in the previous World Cup played for a country other than their birth nation and Hourcade believes having a qualification period of five years will ensure the young players in the country do not get lured of playing abroad.

Currently, only players from Super Rugby franchise Jaguares are in contention to play for Argentina and Hourcade revealed the board is considering to have another franchise in the Southern Hemisphere competition.

"It's happened to us, it's happened to us before, with Italy," said Hourcade of Argentina losing potential Pumas players in the past.

"But on the other hand we weren't able to offer anything to them back then. We didn't have a good tournament in relation to the country.

"But now we have the Rugby Championship, the Jaguares franchise, a good tournament where they can play.

"And we are thinking about having another franchise in the future.

"If we can get it or not is another matter, but that's the idea."

Hourcade also named his team for the upcoming Rugby Championship game against Australia at Twickenham . The Pumas can avoid a bottom finish if they could muster a bonus point victory on Saturday, while denying any point to the Wallabies.

"We take the invitation to play at Twickenham as an honour, and it's something very important for our players.

"The fact that we are not playing at home probably generates something that is not so strong for the team, but on the other hand it's very important to play at Twickenham in this type of game."

Argentina team: J Tuculet, M Moroni, M Orlando, S Gonzalez Iglesias, M Montero, N Sanchez, M Landajo, L Noguera, A Creevy (capt), R Herrera, G Petti, M Alemanno, P Matera, J Ortega Desio, L Senatore.

Replacements: J Montoya, S Garcia Botta, E Pieretto, M Kremer, T Cubelli, JM Leguizamon, J De La Fuente/G Ascarate, R Moyano/LG Amorosino.