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Benjamín Urdapilleta is out of rugby for two months after undergoing surgery. The Castres fly half made the announcement himself on twitter.
Urdapilleta underwent surgery on his thumb. The injury was sustained in Castres’ impressive away victory over Toulouse this past weekend. In the match the Argentine play-maker scored 16 points to help his club come back from being well behind to complete a famous victory.
His form in France has him among Argentina’s leading fly halves. Earlier this year he was Man of the Match in the Top 14 Semi Finals and Final, seeing Castres to a massive upset victory over Montpellier to be crowned French club champions.
Yet due to selection policies Urdapilleta has not featured for Argentina for a number of years. The retirement of Juan Martín Hernández and the replacement of Daniel Hourcade for Mario Ledesma has seen players based in Europe now again being selected for Los Pumas.
Ledesma has used Nicolás Sánchez as his starting 10 throughout the year. This has seen Sánchez at fly half for both Los Jaguares and Los Pumas. He is to move to Stade Français in December. With it there is a significant hole to be filled in time for the 2019 Super Rugby campaign.
2019 is also RWC year and Argentina officially do not have a replacement fly half for Sánchez. There are no fly halves involved with Los Jaguares who have caps against Tier 1 opposition. Urdapilleta and Patricio Fernández are the best placed players to together with Sánchez to play in Japan 2019.
Surgery to Urdapilleta sees him unavailable for possible selection for the remainder of the year. Argentina are to face France, Ireland, and Scotland in November. Despite this Americas Rugby News predicts Urdapilleta to be a part of RWC 2019 in Japan.
