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Facundo Isa has been named Argentine Player of the Year for 2016. The Santiago del Estero No 8 was selected over two other finalists. He was awarded with the Olimpia de Plata award for his performances for Los Jaguares and Los Pumas.
Aged 23 Isa replaced Leonardo Senatore as Argentina’s first choice No 8. He played in twelve of Argentina’s thirteen capped internationals for the year, starting in eleven of them.
Already having participated in one Rugby World Cup tournament a second is looming in Japan in 2019. His 25 test caps to date have included five tries. The most recent of these was in Argentina’s final test match of 2016, against England in November.
Isa was the stand-out No 8 in the Rugby Championship. Numerous sites and publications named the player from Northern Argentina as the best No 8 in the world’s toughest annual competition. He was the top ball-carrier with 85 runs. In addition he was the leading forward in terms of both defenders beaten and meters gained.
Also impressing was Nicolás Sánchez who tied Bernard Foley with 53 points for the tournament. They were the second highest scorer behind World Rugby player of the year Beauden Barrett. The All Black scored 81 points.
Sánchez joined Isa in being a finalist for the Olimpia de Plata rugby award. The third nominee was Francisco Ferronato. The Belgrano Athletic prop was a standout in the URBA Top 14 this year and a finalist in the Nacional de Clubes. He also won there Campeonato Argentino, the Argentine Provincial Championship, doing so for Buenos Aires.
Isa was chosen by sporting journalists ahead of the other two nominees. This saw him winning ahead of Sánchez who had done so in 2015. Sánchez won last year ahead of Agustín Creevy and Juan Imhoff.
