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Horacio Agulla try scoring drought

psychic duck

psychic duck

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Argentina winger Horacio Agulla is approaching 50 caps now, but in his 45 caps he has only scored 4 tries. He is currently on a 22 match try scoring drought after his last coming against Uruguay in 2010, and his try scoring drought stretches back to 2008 against RWC nations and is as long as 31 matches.

Is there any other winger who has managed to keep his international place through such a barren run? I'm not sure I can think of any player with a strike rate or gone through that much of a try drought in his position or have that few tries from 45 caps. Mark Cueto went through a lengthy try drought at one point but his career total is 20 tries in 55 caps is still much better.

Agulla can be quite effective at club level, so there needs to be some questions asked in my opinion of how he is being used with Argentina. Either that or he simply a touch of pace at the real top international level and just can't be as effective against the likes the top defences. If it is the latter then surely it is time soon for him to make way for Juan Imhoff or Manuel Montero or even Santiago Cordero.

I know being a wing isn't totally about scoring tries, but only to an extent, as finishing tries and being on hand to finish tries is a key part of it, and 4 tries in 45 matches is pretty poor compared to virtually every other international wing.
 
I think Agulla is gonna be perfect as inside center, sadly Montero has a knee injury so the best winger option is Imhoff.
 
I dont think Agulla is at fault here. He is a good player, not world class, but still pretty good. I believe its more because of the Pumas style and tactics. We are not used to score many tries against tier 1 teams, which are the ones we face with our best XV. That being said, Imhoff probably has more tries than him with less than half of 45 games.
 
This is simple to answer, Argentina in the The Rugby Championship is less than ABs, Wallabies and Boks, which is why a wing as Agulla should to worry about defending first and then try to attack.

While in Aviva Premiership, Agulla played in teams like Leicester Tigers and Bath, which are generally superior to their rivals in the Premiership, in a better team, he can attack more.

This is easy to confirm, when Agulla plays for Bath, he breaks the line several times a game, because his team have possession and attack more times than the opponent. When Agulla plays for Argentina, this is something that rarely happens, the team almost always outnumbered and he has to help defend their teammates.

If you put a wing like Cory Jane, Digby Ioane or Hosea Gear playing for Argentina in TRC, the number of tries to they do decrease because they would have to defend more often than attacks.

Cheers
 
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...Which would be a decent argument if he'd played all 45 of his tests against the SANZAR nations.
 
Luke Fitzgerald has only scored two tries and they were in the same match.
Cueto started out well but fizzled out until 2011.
 
Feicarsinn said:
...Which would be a decent argument if he'd played all 45 of his tests against the SANZAR nations.
Click to expand...

In recent two years, Agulla only played a series against teams on their level: Autumn Rugby Internationals 2012 vs Wales, France and Ireland.

He didn't play in the Summer Rugby Internationals 2012 vs Italy and France (twice). And this year he didn't play in the Summer Rugby Internationals 2013 against England (twice) and Georgia. So are 6 games where Agulla could have been many tries, but Argentina didn't use their best players for reasons beyond them (Problems with European clubs)

In the last two years, 80% of their games have been against the powers of the southern hemisphere, it's very difficult to make many tries that way.

Cheers
 
Conrad Smith said:
In recent two years, Agulla only played a series against teams on their level: Autumn Rugby Internationals 2012 vs Wales, France and Ireland.

He didn't play in the Summer Rugby Internationals 2012 vs Italy and France (twice). And this year he didn't play in the Summer Rugby Internationals 2013 against England (twice) and Georgia. So are 6 games where Agulla could have been many tries, but Argentina didn't use their best players for reasons beyond them (Problems with European clubs)

In the last two years, 80% of their games have been against the powers of the southern hemisphere, it's very difficult to make many tries that way.

Cheers
Click to expand...

True, because of calendar problems with the europeans teams, most of the players that play in the RC, usually dont play in other test matches. And against the traditional 5 nations teams, matches are very close as well, so we are force to defend much of the time as well.
 
45 caps but 8 were at full-back and 6 as a substitute. Nevertheless, it's not a good record but then again, as Pampas says Argentina don't really play expansively.
 
Conrad Smith said:
In recent two years, Agulla only played a series against teams on their level: Autumn Rugby Internationals 2012 vs Wales, France and Ireland.

He didn't play in the Summer Rugby Internationals 2012 vs Italy and France (twice). And this year he didn't play in the Summer Rugby Internationals 2013 against England (twice) and Georgia. So are 6 games where Agulla could have been many tries, but Argentina didn't use their best players for reasons beyond them (Problems with European clubs)

In the last two years, 80% of their games have been against the powers of the southern hemisphere, it's very difficult to make many tries that way.

Cheers
Click to expand...

His career pre dates the Rugby Championship, and so does his try drought. He has played test matches against Uruguay, Chile and Namibia in his career as well. Not that it matters anyway, as players are judged on their record against their peers and all Tier 1 teams play 90% of matches against other Tier 1 teams, few wingers have a record that poor. 12 out of 45 tests against the SANZAR nations is hardly a disproportionate record to any other Tier 1 nation either, and they aren't impossible to score against either, both his teammates Camacho and Imhoff managed to do so last year.

TRF_Draggs said:
Luke Fitzgerald has only scored two tries and they were in the same match.
Cueto started out well but fizzled out until 2011.
Click to expand...

Thanks Draggs. Seems Fitzgerald is on an 18 match tryless run, I wonder whether Schmidt will give him a chance to try and break that run. It seems Agulla's tryless run tops the lot though.
 
TRF_Draggs said:
Luke Fitzgerald has only scored two tries and they were in the same match.
Cueto started out well but fizzled out until 2011.
Click to expand...

In fairness to Fitzgerald hes been injured or returning from since then, but yea his try scoring record for Ireland is pretty bad.
 
It would be pretty funny if he scores tomorrow haha :)
 
I have never rated Agulla. He is known as a winger, yet doesn't have a good finishing ability. Also thought he is too 'pudgy'.
 
UPDATE: Agulla is past 51 caps now, still hasn't scored any more tries. The try drought now stands at 28 consecutive matches since his last try against Uruguay in 2010, the longest try drought an international winger has had of all time by my count.
 
Finally ..... after 32 caps the longest try drought a winger has had in international rugby history comes to an end.
 
lol this thing's from a year ago. Justified bump though..had no idea Agulla had such a hard time !
It should be said, just on the side, that measuring a winger by the no. of tries he scores is to some extent fair but shouldn't become an 'unconditional rule'. There are situations in games, opportunities or lack thereof...of course if you haven't scored in three thousand test matches, yes there's a very weighty chance you just suck at winguing.
 

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