page_title: History of the Argentina national rugby union team
section_title: 1960s: The birth of Los Pumas
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Argentina national rugby union team / 1960s: The birth of Los Pumas
caption_attribution_description: English: Argentine rugby union player Angel Guastella, during his tenure on the national team.
context_page_description: The History of the Argentina national rugby union team starts with the first international played by an Argentine side v. the British Islands in 1910 when they toured on South America. Argentina gained recognition in 1965, when the team toured South Africa playing a series of friendly matches there. In that tour the national team was nicknamed Los Pumas, a name that became an identity mark for Argentina, remaining to present days.
  Argentina has taken part in all the Rugby World Cups since the first edition in 1987, being their best performance the 3rd. place achieved in 2007. The national side also plays the Rugby Championship since the 2012 edition, after joining the competition one year before.
context_section_description: In 1960, France visited Argentina and Uruguay for a series of 13 matches, 3 of them against Argentina. The hosts still could not get their first win over the French, with France winning all three tests 37–3, 12–3 and 29–6, all of them played at Estadio G.E.B.A.. The Argentine line-up for the first game was 15.Rodolfo Devoto, 14.Enrique Krossler, 13.Esteban Karplus, 12.Ricardo Oliveri, 11.Enrico Neri, 10.Isidro Comas (cap), 9.Eduardo González del Solar, 8.Florencio Varela, 7. Glauco Wessek, 6.Jorge Pulido, 5.Aitor Otano, 4.Rodolfo Schmidt, 3.Eduardo Sorhaburu, 2.Juan Casanegra, 1.Elías Gavina
  The following year Argentina again showed their dominance on a continental level, winning the South American tournament held in Montevideo, by beating Brazil 60–0, Uruguay 36–3 and Chile 11–3. In 1964 a new version of the South American tournament was played in San Pablo and Argentina again achieved huge victories over Uruguay (25–6), Brazil (30–5) and Chile (30–8).
  In the late 1960s the four home unions began tours to Argentina, and after Wales struggled in both tests in Buenos Aires in 1967 it became clear that Argentina would be a difficult place to win a series. Scotland lost the first test in 1968, but won a close second test two weeks later.
  The first trip of the Argentina national rugby team to the other side of the Atlantic was to Rhodesia and South Africa in 1965. The team acquired the nickname Pumas, from a local journalist of The Weekly Farers after their first tour match, a defeat on 8 May by Rhodesia in Salisbury 17–12. The journalist mistook the animal that appeared on the UAR emblem (a yaguareté) for a puma, probably because it was an unknown species in South Africa. Nevertheless, the nickname has remained as a mark of identity for the team since then. After defeats by Salisbury and Northern Transvaal, the first win came against Western Transvaal, another against South West Africa Country Districts and finally against the Southern Universities. The Pumas scored a landmark win of 11–6 against the Junior Springboks on June 19 at Ellis Park Stadium. The line-up for that historic day was Roberto Cazenave; Enrico Neri, Marcelo Pascual, Arturo Rodríguez Jurado (h), Eduardo España; Eduardo Poggi, Adolfo Etchegaray; Raúl Loyola, Héctor Silva, Eduardo Scharenberg; Rodolfo Schmidt, Aitor Otaño (c); Ronnie Foster, Nicanor González del Solar, Luis García Yáñez.
  That victory over the Junior Springboks was widely praised by the media, being considered as the first landmark of the Argentine rugby since the beginning of this sport in the country. Argentina played a total of 16 matches, with 11 won and only 4 lost over two months. The players were welcomed home to Buenos Aires by a huge crowd.
  A match was then organised against the French champions Section Paloise, although the match was remembered for the uproar and misconduct of both teams rather than the Argentine victory. Then Oxford & Cambridge arrived, a team that the Pumas had never beaten. The first match finished level at 19–19 and the second saw the University students triumph 9–3. 1965 ended with a match against Chile, which the Pumas won 23–11.
  In 1966, the Gazelles –a kind of a Junior Springboks B team– arrived in Argentina. The visitors took two victories 9–3 and 20–15. In September 1967, Argentina played in Buenos Aires in the South American Championship with victories over Uruguay 38–6 and Chile 18–0. Wales arrived in Buenos Aires in 1968 and for the first time in their history the Pumas were able to triumph in a series, winning the first match 9–5 and drawing the second 9–9. The first great decade in Argentine rugby came to a close with the arrival of Scotland in 1969. The first match saw a big Argentine victory 20–3, but in the second game the visitors narrowly won 6–3.
  In 1968 Wales toured on Argentina to play six games. Argentina defeated Wales in the first test by 9–6, with the following line-up: 15.Jorge Seaton, 14.Mario Walther, 13.Arturo Rodriguez Jurado, 12.Marcelo Pascual, 11.Alejandro Travaglini, 10.Jorge Dartiguelongue, 9.Adolfo Etchegaray, 7.Miguel Chesta, 
caption: Former player Angel Guastella was the coach of Argentina during the 1965 tour.
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