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On November 11 2006 Argentina were 25-18 winners over England in London. The starting wingers were José Maria Nuñez Piossek and Pablo Goméz Cora. Neither player featured at RWC 2007 with the latter player appearing in what was his fourth, and final, test match.
In RWC 2007 Argentina’s wingers were Horacio Agulla, Lucas Borges, and Federico Martín Aramburu. Agulla had been on the bench in the aforementioned match against England and was an amateur both then and at RWC 2007. Argentine wingers were in low demand in 2007 which saw fullback Ignacio Corleto starting RWC warm-up matches on the wing.
Four wingers were selected for RWC 2011 but two of them were amateurs, based in Argentina – Agustín Gosio, and Juan Imhoff. They were back-ups to Horacio Agulla, and Gonzalo Camacho but both scored tries unlike Agulla and Camacho.
Now in December 2019 the situation has changed. The players selected as wingers for RWC 2019 were Santiago Carreras, Bautista Delguy, Matías Moroni, and Ramiro Moyano. Not only were there four, rather than three wingers, but they also represented a higher level overall.
The roster for RWC 2019 came with controversy. Santiago Cordero was left out of the roster and Juan Imhoff was not considered. In 2019 both men were playing better than players who went to Japan.
Cordero and Imhoff are examples of the healthy state of Argentina wingers. Both play in France as does Los Pumas 7’s Olympian Axel Muller while Ramiro Moyano recently departed Los Jaguares for France.
Moyano fell out of favor at RWC 2019. After his start against France in Tokyo he lost his spot to a rookie as Santiago Carreras joined Matías Moroni as the starting wingers against Tonga, and England, while Bautista Delguy was selected ahead of Moroni against the USA.
The match against the USA was officially the beginning of the new era. That era is the RWC 2019-2023 cycle. It came after losses against France, and England had eliminated Los Pumas from Quarter Finals contention.
Carreras, and Delguy were Argentina’s tournament leaders for meters gained, line breaks and defenders beaten. One question which the match against the Eagles asked is why was Moroni playing wing to begin with? The answer is because Matías Orlando was preferred to Moroni at outside center but the staff wanted him to nonetheless start.
The jury is out for 2020. Will Moroni be a winger? Given his and Orlando’s RWC performances were behind other Pumas who took their chances better, will Moroni revert to outside center? A hypothesis in the aftermath of Argentina’s elimination in Japan is that Juan Cruz Mallía is Argentina’s best outside center. Where Moroni will play must thereby be categorized as undetermined.
At Los Jaguares Moroni will be in contention for both positions. Other specialist wingers are Sebastián Cancelliere, Mateo Carreras, Santiago Carreras, and Bautista Delguy. Santiago Carreras will also cover Emiliano Boffelli, and Joaquín Tuculet at fullback instead of Mallía who is set to be a mid-fielder in 2020.
The mix for Los Pumas is therefore relatively clear. From Los Jaguares the best bets to be playing wing in July 2020 are Santiago Carreras, and Bautista Delguy. The next inline remains open both from Los Jaguares and abroad.
In addition to Jaguares wingers’ there are seven foreign-based players who ought to be considered for international duty. From France they are Santiago Cordero (Bordeaux), Juan Imhoff (Racing 92), Ramiro Moyano (Toulon), and Axel Muller (Brive). The Italian-based Facundo Panceyra Garrido (Calvisano) is the remaining player based in Europe who should be looked at. The others are Julián Dominguez (NOLA Gold), and Manuel Montero (Olímpia).
The new RWC cycle thereby begins with unprecedented health in the stock of Argentina wingers. The number of active players who ought to be considered for spots are thirteen. Five of them are Jaguares – Cancelliere, M Carreras, S Carreras, Delguy, and Moroni. The seven others are Cordero, Dominguez, Imhoff, Montero, Moyano, Muller, and Panceyra Garrido.
Cordero is the prime contender from abroad and his name is expected to be on the list for July 2020. There will be room for one more with the player to certainly be one of the remaining thirteen wingers and with a remaining Jaguar not being positioned strongly at present. Players have everything to play for in Super Rugby 2020.
