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Preparation for Super Rugby continues in Buenos Aires where new players are in Training with Los Jaguares. This week Los Pumas 7s players Axel Müller (pictured above), Santiago Álvarez, Bautista Ezcurra, Rodrigo Etchart, Segundo Tuculet and Sebastián Cancelliere have joined the 35 players who have been training since Monday of last week.
The addition of the six players brings the number of players up to 41, of whom 30 are under full-time contracts. The eleven remaining players are all hopefuls to be signed but are certainties to be involved in some capacity.
Four more names are yet to be added to the Agustín Creevy captained roster. One name notably missing is that of Tucumán hooker Santiago González Valdez who is looking at the possibility of playing in Europe to acquire more game time and work his way up the ladder.
The five to have entered camp with the contracted players stand strong chances and are looking to make the most of the opportunity. Mendoza Scrumhalf Gonzalo Bertranou stated “any Argentina rugby player would like to be in the Jaguares and in Super Rugby. And this objective, this dream, was that which got me to work harder and harder. Before, in December they told me I would join in the training, I saw it as far off but I am working hard to be here. Now I have the opportunity and I hope to be able to take it“.
Bertranou was joined by Felipe Arregui, Facundo Bosch, Felipe Ezcurra and Cristian Bartoloni last week and now the six Rugby Sevens players who are to depart for Wellington, New Zealand for the World Sevens Circuit later this month.
The Jagauers will begin their Super Rugby campaign on February 26 in South Africa against the Cheetahs. Before then the team is to play warm-up matches though nothing has yet been confirmed. The first home match of the Super Rugby season will be in round 4 against New Zealand franchise the Chiefs.
