Argentina

The Argentine Rugby Union, the body that fields the team, dates to 10 April 1899, when five clubs — Belgrano, Rosario, Lomas, Buenos Aires and Flores — formed it as the River Plate Rugby Union; it took its present name only in 1951. The team itself did not take the field until 1910, losing 3–28 to a touring British Isles side, the forerunner of the British & Irish Lions, at the Sociedad Sportiva Argentina.

The nickname came later and by accident. On the 1965 tour of southern Africa, a South African journalist, Carl Kohler, looked at the jaguar on the crest and wrote it up as a puma.

Third place at the 2007 World Cup, secured by beating France in the playoff after losing the semi-final to South Africa, remains the high mark, with fourth-place finishes at both 2015 and 2023 built the same way — a semi-final defeat followed by a lost bronze match. Pablo Matera holds the appearance record; Daniel Hourcade coached the side through both the 2007 podium and the 2015 semi-final. Against New Zealand, South Africa and Australia in the Rugby Championship, Argentina's best finish remains second, in 2020.