Americas Super Rugby Players for teams other than Jaguares

On Friday history will be made when Los Jaguares become the first fully professional rugby team in the history of the Americas. The Argentine Super Rugby franchise will begin their campaign with an away fixture against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.

All of those taking the field for Los Jaguares are to be Argentine nationals. All players were born and raised in the country which is to, in effect, act as a direct trade to that of the past when foreign leagues had large numbers of Pumas players. In 2007  there were 60 Argentine players plying their trade in both France and Italy.

Los Jaguares’ roster is to have a total number of 45 players. Of them some will come and go with other commitments seeing them being rotated. Contemporary instances being the Americas Rugby Championship and the Las Vegas and Vancouver Sevens.

The final number of Argentine players involved in the 2016 Super Rugby campaign will only be known when the final match has been played. The number itself is to be influenced by other teams as there are two Pumas playing for Super Rugby teams other than Los Jaguares this season – Tomás Cubelli and Tomás Leonardí.

The two Tomás’ from Buenos Aires are to be joined by a third non-Jaguares player in the Americas contingent in the form of Andrew Durutalo. The number one Eagles openside flanker will be a teammate of Leonardí at the Tokyo based Sunwolves franchise.

With Cubelli playing for the Brumbies there are to be Americas players in three of the 18 franchises in Super Rugby this season. Durutalo will be the second player from the USA to play in the competition while Leonardí will be playing for a second country’s franchise.

Of the 18 teams 9 of them have had players from the Americas past or present. The complete record is documented below.

Franchise	Country	Player	Year
Brumbies	Argentina	Tomás Cubelli	2016
Brumbies	Argentina	Omar Hasan	1997-1998
Brumbies	Argentina	Patricio Noriega	1996-2000
Waratahs	Argentina	Patricio Noriega	2001-2004
Highlanders	Argentina	Matías Díaz	2014
Hurricanes	Argentina	Omar Hasan	1996
Southern Kings	Argentina	Tomás Leonardí	2013
Southern Kings	Argentina	Nicolás Vergallo	2013
Lions	Argentina	Roberto Grau	1996-1997
Lions	USA	Todd Clever	2009-2010
Sharks	Argentina	Federico Mendez	1996, 2002-2005
Sharks	Argentina	Juan Martín Hernández *	2009
Stormers	Argentina	Eusebio Guiñazú	2010
Stormers	Argentina	Manuel Carizza	2014-2015
Stormers	Argentina	Federico Mendez	2005
Stormers	Canada	Jebb Sinclair	2012
Stormers	Canada	Christian Stewart	1998
Sunwolves	USA	Andrew Durutalo	2016
Sunwolves	Argentina	Tomás Leonardí	2016

* Played New Zealand Cup or Currie Cup for the relevant team.
* Jaguares second-rower Tomás Lavanini trained with the Chiefs.