Hourcade burns fingers trying to keep Pumas pot boiling

By Rex Gowar LONDON (Reuters) - Argentina coach Daniel Hourcade did not have enough lids to keep all the pots boiling in his team at the same time in a season with few dishes to savour. A 27-14 loss to 14-man England at Twickenham on Saturday left Hourcade’s Pumas with four wins and nine defeats in 2016 and the danger of missing out on top-eight seeding in May’s World Cup draw. “It’s the story of the three pans and two lids, you put one here and have to leave another without,” Hourcade told Reuters of the difficulties in cooking up all-round, winning performances. “There have been lots of positive things and some not so this year and perhaps the negative was heightened because we didn’t get numerical results that back up (our game). “There’s a lot of work to be done,” Hourcade said looking ahead to another demanding season in 2017 when the same, relatively small pool of players under contract with the Argentine union (UAR) will don their Jaguares colours before trying to merge seamlessly into Pumas again. “A couple more wins taking in the Rugby Championship and this November (tour) would have changed the feeling (we have).” Argentina need to give more players top international experience by expanding the pool available for both their single Super Rugby franchise and the Pumas, grooming them in such second string teams as Argentina XV. They have a policy of not picking top players based in Europe like Racing Paris winger Juan Imhoff and Leicester prop Marcos Ayerza except for World Cups. Hourcade had mixed feelings about Saturday’s match, pleased with how Argentina took the game to England but disappointed with their failure to round off their attacking movements and the penalties they gave away. “Quite apart from them having a man less, it was our plan to open the game which is what we did and with a man less that often happened but we did not finish our moves well,” he told reporters. England wing Elliot Daly was shown the red card after five minutes for a foul tackle on Leonardo Senatore. With two tries apiece, the difference in the score was down to the boot of Owen Farrell. England coach Eddie Jones said the team that looked more tired after an hour at Twickenham were the Pumas, not England. “It’s the result of the season throughout the year that we have had which was very long with new experiences and lots of travel,” Hourcade said. Taking the combination of global travel as Jaguares first, then as Pumas in the Rugby Championship and the November tour, Argentina’s players took in the region of 50 flights this year. Staging their last Rugby Championship match against Australia at Twickenham instead of at home and starting the November tour in Japan were decisions taken not with the players in mind but the UAR coffers and they will have to think how best to plough the revenue back into the team. (Editing by Pritha Sarkar)