By Phil Harlow

Argentina came within seconds of their first ever win over the Springboks

All Black legend Zinzan Brooke has called for Argentina to join the Tri-Nations tournament.

Following their 2-0 series defeat of France and their last-minute loss to South Africa the Pumas have moved to seventh in the world rankings, ahead of Scotland, Wales, Samoa and Italy.

And Brooke has told BBC Sport he believes the time is right to introduce new blood to the competition that features New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

"It would be great for the tournament," Brooke said.

"At the moment, Argentina are a little bit isolated - they're not really part of European rugby and they're not really part of southern hemisphere rugby.

"They would certainly be competitive as we saw against South Africa last week.

"I was really disappointed that they lost that game.

"They played really well and were by far the better team and to have the success snatched away from you with the last kick of the game must have been sickening.

We need to strip the rule book back to basics and start again Zinzan Brooke

"The good thing about Argentina is that they've made real progress in the last few years.

"This is the sort of thing we need to do if we're going to really promote this sport."

Brooke also called for the IRB to go back to basics in terms of the laws of the game, particularly those dealing with the ruck and maul areas.

"The laws are too complicated now," he said.

"Referees are having to interpret what they perceive as the right ruling - there are just too many different rules and it is making the game boring.

"The sport is becoming too stop-start and there are too many penalties.

"We all blame the referee when he blows the whistle too much in a game, but the fact of the matter is that we need to strip the rule book back to basics and start again.