There is still a sense within the Argentinian camp that their sixth-place finish at the Olympic Games in Rio was an opportunity missed. Sudden-death quarter-final defeats, in their case at the hands of Great Britain, tend to stay with you.

Fortunately, sport often offers a second chance and Argentina will be hoping to set the record straight at Tokyo 2020, should they qualify, when rugby sevens will look to build on its phenomenal debut as an Olympic sport in four years’ time.

With the understanding that an injection of new blood may be needed to medal in Japan, 21 young players came together at the Hindú Club in Buenos Aires earlier this week for the first of three training camps which will form part of the selection process for the 2016-17 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

Four of the group - Domingo Miotti, José Barros Sosa, Vicente Boronat and Mariano Romanini - are silver-medallists from the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.

“It is always a pleasure to be involved with a national team; this is a new experience and an opportunity we must take full advantage of,” said Miotti.

Ten of the 21, Miotti included, helped Argentina finish third at this year’s World Rugby U20 Championship in Manchester, while former U20 player Santiago Montagner played for Argentina XV this year.

“In training camps such as this, you are constantly learning. If I look back on Nanjing, the standard of sevens keeps on getting higher as we get older,” added Miotti, a fly-half from the Tucumán Lawn Tennis Club who one day would love to wear the same Los Pumas' No.10 jersey as his club-mate Nicolás Sánchez.

The second and third camps will take place at the beginning and end of October, with the latter involving more experienced players.

FORWARD PLANNING

“The first two are to have a look at new players who could potentially be added to our enlarged squad,” explained Los Pumas Sevens coach Santiago Gómez Cora.

“This is a group of young players that have proven themselves in the provinces and age grade national teams and have been involved in the High Performance Centres. That is noticeable as they’ve come with a great technique and high fitness levels for rugby at this level.

“Squads for next year have not been selected but we are assuming that some of the players that were in our previous sevens cycle will be selected for other teams (Super Rugby franchise Jaguares or Argentina XV for the Americas Rugby Championship).” 

From the squad that went to Rio, only former captain Nicolás Bruzzone has announced his international retirement, series regular Axel Müller and superstar Juan Imhoff are plying their trade in France, while a few others are expected to move to 15s rugby, meaning Gómez Cora needs to start remodelling his squad.

“We might be four years away from the Tokyo Games but there is a lot of work to be done and we must now start to see all of our options,” he concluded.

Photos: Frankie Deges