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The Toronto Arrows have announced the extensions of 10 players for the 2020 Major League Rugby season with two new additions. South American internationals Manuel Diana and Tomás de la Vega will boost the club’s loose forwards stocks in the upcoming campaign.
Diana has been a regular in the Uruguay squad since his debut in February 2017. The 23-year-old has recently kept Houston SaberCats starter Alejandro Nieto out of the Teros lineup, wearing the No8 shirt against Russia and the Argentina XV during the Nations Cup, and against Spain in Montevideo. Diana was also a standout for the Rugby Americas XV that defeated the Glendale Raptors in October 2018 and drew the interest of multiple MLR clubs.
Still just 28 years old, de la Vega made his test debut for Argentina in 2011 after eye-catching performances in both the 2009 and 2010 u20 World Championships. He started at openside flanker in the win over France at Córdoba in June 2012. Tipped by many to be a future Pumas captain, he made a surprise decision in 2014 to turn down the domestic PladAR program and missed out on the 2015 World Cup as a result. de la Vega returned to international rugby with the Argentina XV for the 2017 Americas Rugby Championship.
The club’s two current Uruguayans – winger Leandro Leivas and fullback Gastón Mieres – will both return for 2020. They will play for Los Teros, along with Diana, in the upcoming World Cup in Japan.
Also re-signing with the Arrows are hookers Andrew Quattrin and Steven Ng, back rows Lucas Rumball, Peter Milazzo, and Marcello Wainwright, scrumhalf Andrew Ferguson, and midfielders Guiseppe du Toit and Mitch Richardson. Quattrin and Rumball are with the Canada squad for the Pacific Nations Cup.
