The place of Argentina in international rugby: Between and beyond core and periphery

The sport of rugby union takes on different meanings in various countries around the world. To date there has only been a small amount of work that has considered the positioning of the game in Argentina. This chapter assesses the place of Argentina within the global rugby setting and attempts to tease out some of the key issues surrounding core and periphery in the sport. In an approach informed by geographical research and the sociology of sport, we consider Argentina's performance at the 2007 Rugby World Cup competition as a defining moment in the game. This together with Argentina's invitation to join a Four-Nations competition in 2012 situates the Pumas as an emerging rugby nation, and a challenger to the eight core rugby nations.