Argentina's inclusion in the new southern hemisphere Rugby Championship is just the start, a leading South African rugby official said.
The next step is for an Argentine franchise to be added to the existing Super 15 rugby series, SA Rugby's deputy president Mark Alexander said.
"It's about having players available," Alexander told Reuters.
"I think this is a start, to get commercial partners back home because it's quite a costly exercise to run a franchise considering the cost of players."
"With time there could be a franchise coming out of this region and if we want to grow the game we are serious about our partnership with Argentina and this is a new market for us and a growth area."
Argentina have been given a place in the new tournament from next year.
South Africa played a big part in helping Argentina get invited by Sanzar, the body that groups them with Australia and New Zealand and ran the former Tri-Nations.
"South Africa adopted an approach about four years ago that we wanted Argentina to be part of this competition and one of our first initiatives was to get them playing in our Vodacom Cup back in our domestic league," Alexander said.
"The Pampas won that competition last season so we work very closely with Argentina, we believe it's good for the growth of the game to make sure the southern hemisphere has a strong presence in the World Cup."
"Argentina always showed the talent, they just needed the opportunity to play regular international rugby," he added after the formal presentation of the Rugby Championship at a Buenos Aires hotel.
The chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Union, Mike Eagle, said the only serious doubts surrounding Argentina's inclusion had revolved around player availability.
"The only serious doubts we had were about the strength of the Argentine team. It would be a sad day if they came into this competition and didn't put their best players up," Eagle said.
"As you know Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are pretty strong sides and if the supporters saw Argentina not performing at the level they should be then I think quickly they would lose respect for Argentina."
"So we made sure that Argentina would have their best side available. I know we've got complications with the northern clubs in releasing their players, that's why we would like to integrate their younger players into our southern hemisphere competitions so they can be released like our players are."
"The ultimate goal for Argentina should be really to have their own conference of super rugby down here playing in front of their own fans. That's why we've got a conference system and it's easy to add conferences," Eagle said.