Pumas coach says rugby is booming in football-mad Argentina

Felipe Contepomi said rugby union is booming in football-mad Argentina as he tries to turn the Pumas’ recent progress into a longer run at the top. Named Argentina’s head coach on 18 December 2023, the former Pumas fly-half and centre has become the face of a side that is pushing for a bigger place in a country still dominated by football.

The clearest sign of that momentum came at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, where Argentina finished third after England beat them in the playoff for bronze. Contepomi has also said the Pumas must “write our own history” at the tournament, a line that captures the ambition around the team as much as the pressure on it. Argentina’s 59-5 win over Chile in the first all-South American Rugby World Cup match-up underlined how far the side had pulled ahead in the region, even as the sport began to spread more broadly across the continent.

Chile’s presence alongside Argentina and Uruguay at the World Cup was described as a special moment for South American rugby, and it gave that regional rise a visible stage. For Argentina, the tournament was not only about the Pumas’ result in France, but also about showing that a country defined internationally by football could produce a rugby side capable of finishing on the podium and driving attention beyond its traditional base.

Contepomi now leads a national team carrying both sporting and symbolic weight. His appointment in late 2023 gave the Pumas a coach who knows the shirt from the inside, and the World Cup run gave him results to point to immediately. With Argentina having finished third and Chile joining the tournament picture, the sport’s growth in the region no longer looks like a one-off surge. It has become part of the Pumas’ own story, and Contepomi has made clear he wants that story written on Argentine terms.