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Los Pumas will not have the services of Joel Sclavi this year. The tight head prop is to undergo shoulder surgery and thereby will not feature in the Rugby Championship.
The 26-year-old Sclavi returned from France to sign for Los Jaguares. The move proved successful as he fit in well and shot above the other tight had props to be a prominent weapon in the scrum. It was this area of the game that saw Sclavi highly praised. Moreover, his name was underlined for test duty this year.
Known as Toro (Bull), Sclavi developed into the player he is while playing abroad. He departed Mar del Plata for France in 2016. There he played in both the Pro D2 and Top 14 for Agen, Charente and Pau. It was at Pau where he trained under Andrés Bordoy. It was the former Puma and Pau front-rower that brought Toro to Los Jaguares.
Sclavi was named together with Santiago Medrano and Lucio Sordoni as home-based tight head props training for the Rugby Championship. With him now out of action the versatile Juan Pablo Zeiss is being considered as a tight head prop.
Mario Ledesma named 59 players to train for international duty in May. Seven tight head props were on the list. Four of them were the above mentioned names. The three others play abroad: Francisco Gómez Kodela (Lyon, FR), Ramiro Herrera (La Rochelle, FR), and Enrique Pieretto (Glasgow Warriors, UK). Juan Figallo retired from test rugby following RWC 2019.
