E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly Version 
Subscribe to RSS FeedPichot fears for world rugby
Pichot: The eyes have it
Argentina captain Agustín Pichot predicted the "end for rugby" if tournament organisers follow through with plans to reduce the number of teams competing in the 2011 World Cup.
The International Rugby Board (IRB) will meet after the current tournament to discuss whether to cut the amount of participating teams from 20 to 16.
That could mean the likes of Portugal and Georgia, who will have taken heart from Argentina's amazing campaign that ended with a 37-13 defeat to South Africa at the semi-final stage in Paris on Sunday night, miss out.
Pichot, whose country have come from the depths to take their place on the top table of world rugby in recent years, believes that would sound the death knell for the sport.
"If the World Cup is cut from 20 to 16, I think that will be the end for rugby," said the veteran scrum-half.
"We need to give all the countries a chance to play on this stage, even if they are not ready to play.
"Two of the greatest teams in world rugby [New Zealand and Australia] have gone home at the quarter-final stage. They have a lot of power.
"We have to look where we want to go. Open rugby, or six-to-10 team rugby."
Pichot was in tears as he praised the efforts of his team, who progressed through the group stages unbeaten and then beat Scotland in the last eight.
"We really believed we could achieve something, but something was missing," added the scrum-half.
"I won't have another chance to be a world champion, and that really hurts more than anything else.
"We have been waiting for so long, so it's a really sad day. We did everything, but it was beyond our reach."
Argentina will now meet France in Paris on Friday in the play-off for third place.
