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Oyonnax have offered a contract to Matías Moroni, reports Midi Olympique. The French club are leading the Pro D2 and are favorites to win automatic promotion back to the Top 14. In looking to be competitive the club is seeking to secure players for the 2017-2018 season.
Players to already have been recruited include Vincent Debate (Clermont), Phoenix Battyre (Béziers), Julien Audy (Bordeaux) and Time Giresee (Biarritz).
Aged 26 Moroni is a product of the PladAR system. He played for Los Pumitas at the 2011 Junior World Championship. From there he was a regular for Los Pumas 7’s in 2012 and 2013. He made the step up to Los Pumas in 2014 and became back-up to Marcelo Bosch.
Moroni has been capped 19 times by Argentina. He made his debut against Scotland in 2014 and has gone on to start in 17 of his Pumas appearances. His first try was against Namibia in Rugby World Cup 2015 while his second was one week later as Argentina eliminated Ireland at the Quarter Finals stage.
In 2016 Moroni played 11 test matches. Daniel Hourcade started him both at outside center and on the wing. He crossed for a double against Japan and also scored against Italy in Santa Fé.
Should Moroni sign for Oyonnax it would be a massive blow to Argentina. Players based in Europe are not eligible for international duty. Moroni’s 7’s teammate, Axel Muller is in rich form for Toulon while fellow winger Juan Imhoff continues to impress at Racing 92. Both would have played for Argentina if eligible in 2016.
