New Zealand's rugby World Cup-winning coach Graham Henry has signed as a consultant for Argentina, who embark on their debut season in a top-level tournament this year.
The Pumas face New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in the southern hemisphere's new four-nation Rugby Championship between August 18 and October 6.
The Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) said on Wednesday that Henry, whose All Blacks won New Zealand's second World Cup last year, would advise Argentina on how to improve coaching at their high-performance centres.
"(Henry's) task will be to give his technical advice. He likes Argentina, the feeling of Argentine players (for the game) and he'll help players take a leap in quality," said Manuel Galindo, head of the UAR's high-performance rugby sub-committee.
"He's going to work with the trainers, doing coaching."
Henry was quoted by the UAR as saying: "For seven weeks of the year, my role will be to give the high-performance team and their trainers an idea of what it takes to create a national programme that will make the team more competitive at international level.
"Argentina's entry into the Rugby Championship...to play against the three best-placed teams in the world ranking is a big challenge," the 65-year-old said.
"So, it's understandable that this new challenge should have sparked a change in the UAR structures and the development of their High-Performance Plan," said Henry, whose All Blacks beat the Pumas in the quarter-finals at the 2011 World Cup.
Galindo said Argentina, whose third place at the 2007 World Cup helped to get them invited to join the Sanzar nations New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in their annual tournament, sought three key changes to the way the Pumas were run.
First, they signed up their entire coaching staff full time.
Then selectors in Argentina, where the game is amateur and professionals play abroad, mainly in Europe, gave contracts to a number of home-based players.
"The third big step we had to take was to get a person who could shorten the distance (with our rivals) in the tournament we are going to take part in," Galindo said.
"We set ourselves the dream of getting the best or one of the best coaches in the world. We've been talking for three months and (the deal) was signed on Sunday night."
Henry is not the first New Zealander to be involved with the Pumas. Alex Wyllie, who coached the All Blacks in the early 1980s, began with Argentina as a consultant before taking charge of the team for the 1999 World Cup when the Pumas reached the quarter-finals for the first time.
Former Pumas captain Agustin Pichot played a big part in talks with Henry, who coached Wales and the British and Irish Lions before taking charge of the All Blacks.
Pichot is now in Europe talking to English and French clubs about the release of their Argentine players for the Rugby Championship which overlaps with the start of the northern hemisphere season.