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The year is over for Joaquín Tuculet. Argentina’s leading fullback suffered a rupture of the anterior ligament of his knee in Friday’s Super Rugby match against the Chiefs in Rotorua, New Zealand.
The sale of the injury means the stand-in Jaguares captain will not play any further part in the 2018 Super Rugby campaign. The timing means he will miss out on the June Internationals and Rugby Championship as well as the November Internationals.
He will require six months recovery, a length of time which effectively ends his year altogether. Los Pumas Head Coach Daniel Hourcade will now need to look at alternatives to play against Wales and Scotland in June.
Mario Ledesma will be charged with addressing the same problem for Los Jaguares. Tuculet has started all but one match at fullback under Ledesma this year. The one exception was against the Melbourne Rebels with Emiliano Boffelli playing fullback rather than wing on that occasion.
Boffelli has otherwise played left wing under Ledesma. He has been joined by Sebastián Cancelliere, Bautista Delguy, and Ramiro Moyano as the wing options. Juan Cruz Mallía debuted against the Chiefs and is an option for fullback.
Yet to play is Matías Moroni. In his absence Matías Orlando has played every minute of every match for Los Jaguares this year. The timing of Tuculet’s injury means that playing Boffelli at 13 in order to rest Orlando sufficiently for June will not happen.
There are, nonetheless, other options at fullback for both Los Jaguares and Los Pumas. Super Rugby rookie Bautista Delguy is naturally a fullback. Alternatively the English-based Santiago Cordero could be used in the position. Hourcade started him at fullback against England in November 2016.
For Tuculet attention is now to turn to RWC 2019. The Jaguares captaincy is now set to go to either Tomás Lezana or Nicolás Sánchez. They have are Ledesma’s next in line below Pablo Matera and Joaquin Tuculet.
Matera is also injured at present and will miss out on playing in the June Internationals. In his absence Tomás Lezana and Javier Ortega Desio have started under Ledesma. Toulon’s Facundo Isa is unlikely to feature in June due to injury.
