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Matías Orlando has signed for the Newcastle Falcons. The outside center will join the English Premiership club in December in a contract that runs until the completion of the 2021-2022 season. As such he is free to play for Argentina in the Rugby Championship this year.
The Tucumáno is the latest big name departure from Los Jaguares. He follows Guido Petti, Jerónimo de la Fuente, Marcos Kremer and Matías Alemanno from Jaguares to Europe. The 28-year-old went through the PladAR system, playing for the Pampas XV in 2012 and was a part of the Super Rugby franchise from the start.
Orlando’s departure from Argentina sees the Super Rugby franchise losing their regular starting pair in a matter of days. First-choice inside center and captain, Jerónimo de la Fuente joined Perpignan on Saturday. The pairing have 98 test caps for Los Pumas between them.
de la Fuente and Orlando were Argentina’s 12-13 combination for the team’s first three pool matches at RWC 2019. They started together against France, Tonga and the USA. This continued the trend from throughout the RWC 2015-2019 cycle wherein they were the most common mid-field combination.
Argentine head coach Mario Ledesma named both Orlando and de la Fuente on his extended player roster. In doing so, both men were named in Argentina’s roster for 2020 international duty. In total, seven centers were named; however, two of them are uncapped. The capped players were Orlando, de la Fuente, Juan Cruz Mallía, Lucas Mensa and Matías Moroni.
The Newcastle Falcons play the 2019-2020 season in the RFU Championship, England’s second division. The team will turn to the English Premiership for the 2020-2021, replacing the relegated Saracens.
