Who is Marcos Kremer?

Daniel Hourcade’s roster for the Rugby Championship featured 33 players. Of them all but one has previous experience with Los Pumas. So who is Marcos Kremer?

Player Profile
Standing in at 2 meters in height and weighing 115kg, Kremer already has the physicality of a seasoned veteran second-rower.

Aged 18 Kremer is very young. He is literally the 2016 version of Guido Petti. Today Petti is a first choice Puma. Indeed he started at Rugby World Cup 2015 against New Zealand as a 20 year old. Aged 19 he started against Italy in Genoa.

Kremer is similar in this regard based on who he has been selected ahead of. Petti first trained with Los Pumas ahead of the 2014 Rugby Championship. While not playing he featured at practice while Patricio Albacete was dropped for his off-field behavior. Also missing was Manuel Carizza as Hourcade instead opted for Tomás Lavanini. He joined Mariano Galarza with Matías Alemanno the next in line.

Jump ahead two years and Kremer’s inclusion comes with European-based second-rowers missing. Hourcade has avoided European players. This means there are no places for Carizza or Galarza. Also out is Juan Cruz Guillemaín through injury. Kremer has a chance for this reason but, notwithstanding, he has been picked ahead of Ignacio Larrague among others.

Rise
In quick time Kremer has earned his way into Los Pumas. He is a product of one of Argentina’s great clubs. From the Atletico del Rosario club, Kremer is the latest in what has been an impressive list of Pumas. José Orengo, Federico Todeschini and Martín Rodríguez Gurruchaga being cases in point.

Unlike those names, Kremer’s rise is not based on performances for the senior club side. To the contrary, Kremer came through the PladAR system.

Having been a standout player in High School he went on to play in the Americas Rugby Championship. Aged 18 he played against the USA, Canada and Chile. His performances in the second-row truly underlined him as a player to watch out for in the future.

Unsurprisingly he was drafted into Los Pumitas immediately. At the World Rugby Junior World Championship that followed Kremer’s performances directly fast-tracked him into higher honors. Starting at both second-row and flanker, Kremer showcased himself as one of the leading under 20 athletes in global rugby.

Future – 2019 Outlook
Identical to how the investment into Petti turned out well the same is hoped for Kremer. It runs deeper though as Kremer has demonstrated his enormous potential. He has the skill set, weight and height to be a hybrid player.

Hourcade named him on the roster as a second-rower. In doing so he joins Rugby World Cup 2015 locks Alemanno, Lavanini and Petti. In that tournament Galarza was suspended after one match. With Petti out of action against Georgia Hourcade named Javier Ortega Desio as his replacement second-rower.

The same policy repeated itself last month against France. This saw Larrague flying home from Romania to give the roster additional options. Kremer was unavailable due to Los Pumitas but has quickly overtaken Larrague.

With Los Jaguares facing injury problems both Kremer and Larrague earned late season debuts for Argentina’s Super Rugby franchise. Neither player has been capped. Their international duty to date has been for Los Pumitas and the Argentina XV. They are both names that can be penciled in for Rugby World Cup 2019.

It is precisely this long-term objective which sees Kremer in the mix today. Set to turn 19 shortly, Kremer  is some ten years younger than Galarza. Hourcade is willing to wager his time on getting him settled into camp now. He is doing so with complete control over him. This is the critical reason as to why he has refrained from selecting European stars.