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New Orleans have added to their impressive stable of forwards with the signing of Chilean international Nikola Bursic for the 2018 Major League Rugby season. The 24-year-old started all four of the November tests for Los Cóndores, winning his 25th cap in the historic win over Germany. More often a lock for his country, his preferred position is No 8 and he can also cover on the blindside flank.
This will be the second foray into professional rugby for the US-born Bursic. He spent the 2016 PRO Rugby season with the San Diego Breakers, and joins new NOLA teammate Sebastián Kalm as the only South Americans to have signed up for both. Argentina’s Maximo de Achaval may yet achieve that distinction having represented the Denver Stampede in PRO and currently on the roster of the Glendale Raptors.
A standout at u20 level for the Junior Cóndores alongside Kalm, Bursic is known for his powerful ball carrying skills and deceiving agility. Though he has shed some weight in the past year he remains an imposing specimen who rarely comes second best in the contact area. He is expected to be part of the Senior Cóndores squad for the upcoming Americas Rugby Championship, having appeared in each of the first two editions of the competition.
Previous Gold signings also include Canadian internationals Hubert Buydens and Eric Howard, South African loose forward Vincent Jobo, and most recently US Eagles prop Ben Tarr. Among the backs are USA Select XV scrumhalf Holden Yungert and Eagles flyhalf JP Eloff.
