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Los Jaguares have lost leading Tight Head prop, Enrique Pieretto to a serious knee injury. The Córdoba front-rower suffered an injury in training with Los Jaguares and is unlikely to play any part in Los Jaguares’ 2018 campaign.
Pieretto is to now undergo surgery and will be unable to play rugby for 6 or 7 months. This means he will miss the Super Rugby season and also Argentina’s home June Internationals against Wales and Scotland.
Prop Concerns
The 23-year-old suffered ligament damage to his right knee. It leaves Head Coach Mario Ledesma with a serious problem as the player roster only contains four props. Pieretto and Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro are Ledesma’s two Tight Head props while Felipe Arregui and Santiago García Botta are the Loose Heads.
Changes from 2017 see the previous first choice props on both sides of the scrum no longer at Los Jaguares. Ramiro Herrera departed for Stade Français while, more recently, Lucas Noguera Paz moved to England to play for Bath.
The growing exiles list has left Los Jaguares’ paper thin at prop. It is not helped by additional Jaguares props from prior Super Rugby campaigns as well as Argentina XV props also having left for Europe. In recent months Eduardo Bello left for Italy, Cristian Bartoloni for France and Facundo Gigena for England.
The result is decreased experience and depth than in prior Super Rugby campaigns. García Botta and Arregui have 22 and 1 Pumas caps respectively. Noguera Paz has 43. Pieretto and Tetaz Chaparro have 23 and 41 caps each. Herrera has 37.
Mounting Injuries
Ledesma acted by including Franco Brarda, Javier Díaz, Nicolás Leiva and Juan Pablo Zeiss in Jaguares training. All four are included in an invitational capacity. Of them Díaz is yet to train at 100%. He is nursing an injury. The same is true of Santiago García Botta. Combined with Pieretto this means that Ledesma has two of his four full-time Jaguars props currently not fully fit.
Additional headaches within the camp see backs Tomás Cubelli and Matías Moroni also unable to be involved in contact training. Cubelli is targeting a return in April while Moroni is expected back just in May. He recently underwent shoulder surgery.
