Argentina have been rewarded for their third place at the Rugby World Cup with an IRB plan for their inclusion in top-level southern hemisphere competition.

"The full integration of Argentina into the senior international calendar and the basis of a four-year transition program to achieve that aim" was among key agreements at an IRB workshop, the world body said today.

Argentina's transition programme would involve development of a professional structure to the national union (UAR) and gradual integration of the Pumas into the southern hemisphere's competition, currently the Tri-Nations.

The Pumas' plight as the only tier one nation not in a major annual international tournament appears to have taken up a good part of discussions among some 90 world delegates at the three-day workshop in Woking, England, that ended on Thursday.

Argentina had a remarkable run in the World Cup in France that ended on October 20 despite representing the amateur UAR and playing fewer than half the Tests a year of the othernations in the top 10.

The UAR must renew its organisation along professional lines to ensure the Pumas remain competitive even when they cannot count on a brilliant generation like that which inspired their feats in France, the IRB has said. Argentina have not found a place yet in one of the two major competitions because their players are almost all based at European clubs, making them better suited to the Six Nations than the Tri-Nations.

They have even formally asked to be drafted into the Six Nations but the workshop, the Integrated Season Forum, appears to have concluded that their true home is in the southern hemisphere. To this end, the forum's recommended four-year plan for Argentina includes:

- Steadily increasing the number and calibre of Test matches the Pumas play between 2008 and 2010 (2011 being a Rugby World Cup year) from the present six to nine per year.

- The Pumas to play four Tests in the June window (instead of three), three in the November window and two during the European Six Nations window. This follows the agreement of the French and English clubs to release players during the Six Nations window for the next three years.

- The progressive development of professional rugby structures in Argentina ... to develop player depth and to ensure that eventually the majority of top-class players stay in Argentina to play their rugby so that Argentina can be fully integrated into the southern top-flight rugby playing structure.

Reuters