The 1965 Argentina rugby union tour of South Africa and Rhodesia was a series of 16 matches played by the Argentina national team in May and June 1965 in Rhodesia and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. That tour was meaningful and relevant for Argentine rugby as it saw the birth of the team's nickname (''Pumas''), which has identified the national team since, following the victory over the

Junior Springboks The South Africa national under-20 rugby union team (nicknamed the Junior Boks or the Baby Boks) are South Africa's junior team at national level. They have been competing in the World Rugby Under 20 Championship (formerly the IRB Junior World Cha ...

at Ellis Park. That win was considered historic not only for the Argentine national team but for the sport in the country.El día que nacieron Los Pumas
''El Gráfico''Pumas para siempre: a 50 años del triunfo sobre Junior Springboks
by Alejo Miranda, ''La Nación'', 19 Jun 2015

The tour

In 1959, the Junior Springboks had toured to Argentina, where they played a series of friendly matches. The South Africans were impressed by the rugby environment in the country and their visit paved the way for the trip of the Argentine team.
Telam, 19 Jun 2015 As a result, in 1964 the

South African Rugby Union The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the governing body for rugby union in South Africa and is affiliated to World Rugby. It was established in 1992 as the South African Rugby Football Union, from the merger of the South African Rugby Board ...

sent an invitation to the

UAR The United Arab Republic (UAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية المتحدة, al-Jumhūrīyah al-'Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 until 1971. It was initially a political union between Eg ...

to send a representative team there. The SARU wanted a foreign team to play there with the purpose of spreading the practise of rugby in South Africa. South African

Danie Craven Daniël Hartman Craven (11 October 1910 – 4 January 1993) was a South African rugby union player (1931–1938), national coach, national and international rugby administrator, academic, and author. Popularly known as Danie, Doc, or Mr R ...

served as adviser for the team to prepare the tour, while the SA Union sent Izak van Heerden to help the Argentine Rugby Union to prepare the tour and collaborate with coaches Alberto Camardón (main coach) and Angel Guastella (second coach). The national team played a series of preparatory games before the tour, facing local clubs and provincial representatives such as Universitario (LP)

Obras Sanitarias Club Atlético Obras Sanitarias de la Nación (mostly known simply as Obras Sanitarias or Obras) is an Argentine professional sports club that is located in the district of Núñez, Buenos Aires. Although originally conceived as a rugby union cl ...

Alumni Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...

, Newman, Córdoba RU, Rosario RU, Duendes and Old Georgian The first two matches in South Africa were extremely hard for the Argentine squad, in disadvantage on the physical power and the tough play by their rivals. Nevertheless, Argentine players vowed themselves to change the history from then on. The "key game" of the tour was the match v. Southern Universities won by Argentina 22–6. The local media entitled "Argentina shattered the cradle of South African rugby" after that match. Nevertheless, Argentina's most relevant victory was against the

– the South African second national team– to whom they defeated 11–6 at Ellis Park. Argentina lineup for that match was Cazenave, Neri, Pascual, Rodríguez Jurado, España; Poggi, Etchegaray; Loyola, Silva, Scharenberg; Schmidt, Otaño; Foster, González del Solar y García Yáñez. The photo showing centre Marcelo Pascual diving to the rival ingoal became iconic for Argentine rugby. The ''Pumas'' nickname is the result of an error made by Carl Kohler, a journalist for the ''Die Transvaler'' newspaper in South Africa, while following the team during the tour. He tried to devise a catchy nickname for the team similar to existing international team nicknames such as ''All Blacks'', ''Springboks'', and ''Wallabies''. Kohler was aware that the Americas had pumas, and as he was under pressure to submit his article, made a guess and called them "the Pumas", instead of the actual jaguar (which original name in Argentina is "yaguareté" but he refused to use that word as he was unable to utter it correctly).Aquella confusión entre un yaguareté y un puma que modificó todo para siempre
''Clarín'', 29 May 2015 The mistake stuck, and was eventually adopted by the Argentines themselves (although the UAR crest depicted a Jaguar until April 2023, when a stylized Puma figure started being used).

Touring team

The Argentine squad was made up of 26 touring players:Emotivo homenaje a los Pumas de 1965
LaVoz.com, 2015 * Walter Aniz * Manuel Beccar Varela * Juan Francisco Benzi * Roberto Cazenave * Jorge Dartiguelongue * Eduardo España * Adolfo Etchegaray * Ronaldo Foster * Luis García Yáñez * Nicanor González del Solar * Héctor Goti * Luis Gradín * Heriberto Handley * José Luis Imhoff * Guillermo Jiba * Luis Loyola *

Guillermo Mc Cormick Guillermo Mc Cormick (1938–2005) was an Argentine rugby union player. His position on the field was prop. Mc Cormick's entire career was in Belgrano Athletic Club, having also played for the Argentina national team. In 1965, was part in the his ...

* Enrico Neri * Arturo Rodríguez Jurado * Bernardo Otaño * Marcelo Pascual * Eduardo Poggi * Héctor Silva * Agustín Silveyra * Eduardo Scharenberg * Rodolfo Schmidt

Match summary

Complete list of matches played by Argentine in South Africa:Memoria y Balance 1965
on UAR website Test matches Pumas queenston 1965

;Notes

Match details

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Statistics

Most matches

Top scorers

Aftermath

The tour is considered the birth of the modern "Pumas" because of the national team had not achieved great results until then. The victory v the Junior Springboks was widely covered by the Argentine media and it is considered a turning point for the national team. In an interview for the 50th anniversary of the tour, Héctor Silva stated: About the first matches, Heriberto Handley said in the same interview: "Coco" Benzi added:

Bibliography

References

{{Rugby Tours in South Africa Argentina national rugby union team tours 1965

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