Last season’s Rugby Championship was one of the most enthralling instalments of the competition in recent memory. There was drama, controversy and plenty of shocks along the way but after all the excitement and even despite making history themselves, Argentina still finished the tournament rock bottom.

This season the eighth-ranked team in the world will be hoping to do better as they plan for the World Cup, where they share a group with England, just as they did back in 2011.

Los Pumas will kick off their Rugby Championship campaign this Saturday when they host the reigning tournament champions New Zealand.

The task ahead for Argentina head coach Michael Cheika is daunting, but he’s more than capable of tackling it head-on. After all, the experienced Australian led his own nation to the World Cup final back in 2015, only to fall at the final hurdle against the All Blacks.

Argentina fans will not expect him to replicate that level of success but will still hope Cheika can manufacture a fair few winning results in the coming weeks.

There’s always a chance of achieving that aim with team captain Julián Montoya within the ranks. The Leicester Tigers hooker is a highly versatile player who wears his heart on his sleeve. The passion which he brings to the game is a real asset to the Argentinians, but his real worth is in the way he steers the set piece and, in particular, the lineout.

Argentina’s form in the past year has been somewhat wayward. They’ve managed to attain some monumental wins but almost immediately followed them up with disappointing losses.

In round two of the Rugby Championship last year, the South Americans put in a blistering attacking display to rip apart Australia 48-17. They then doubled down on that result with a sublime defensive performance to win their first-ever test match in New Zealand, holding out to beat the All Blacks 25-18.

In the space of a fortnight, Argentina had toppled two giants of test rugby, but instead of channelling that momentum, they floundered and were thrashed 53-3 by New Zealand a week later.

A similar fate befell the team in the Autumn International window. It began in emphatic fashion as Los Pumas forged an early second-half surge to beat England for the first time at Twickenham since 2007, coming away with a tight 30-29 win.

As England were hounded, the men in blue and white were celebrated. Though once again, that jovial atmosphere did not last long as Argentina were tightly beaten by Wales a week later and subsequently thumped by Scotland.

To overcome these spots of inconsistency, Los Pumas will have to rely upon the individual brilliance of certain figures to elevate the overall group. Central to that will be star player Emiliano Boffelli who has become somewhat of a Swiss army knife in the Argentina backline.

The winger is not only a prime finisher and a ferocious defender. He’s the designated kicker for his nation. He’s actually very good at it as well, so much so that in the previous Rugby Championship, Boffelli scored the joint most points across the whole competition. If he continues that rich vein of form, the underdogs may have a few more upsets up their sleeves.

Juan Martín González deserves an honourable mention for his trailblazing running in the back row, which earnt him four tries in the Rugby Championship last season – the second-highest in the tournament.

Championship prediction

There’s no question that Argentina have plenty of talent in their roster. Their players are populated in top-flight leagues across the world and continue to shine at the top level of the game. But the brutal truth is Los Pumas, while capable of winning the odd big game, have not shown an ability to dominate for a sustained period of time.

They’ll upset a few teams in the coming weeks, but in the end, Argentina will fall short once again and finish bottom of the Rugby Championship table.