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Castres have re-signed Benjamín Urdapilleta. The Argentine fly half will remain at the Tarns until mid-2022. His contract extension comes following an approach from Perpignan. The Catalans instead contracted fellow Argentine play-maker Patricio Fernández from Lyon.
The veteran Urdapilleta joined Castres in 2015. He previously played for Oyonnax (2012-2015) and the Harlequins (2010-2012). He established himself well at Oyonnax; he was the pivotal player in winning promotion to the Top 14. Having helped Oyonnax to the elite level he then featured prominently in taking Oyonnax to the Top 14 play-off’s.
It got even better for Urdapilleta at Castres. He was central to the teams 2018-2019 Top 14 championship winning season. Urdapilleta was man of the match in the semi final win over Racing 92 and again in the final when Castres upset Montpellier.
His consistency was eventually rewarded. Mario Ledesma recalled Urdapilleta to Los Pumas in 2019. It marked his first time in the test team since 2013. Urdapilleta went on to play in all four of Argentina’s matches at RWC 2019. Added to his prior caps, he has 16 caps in total.
Urdapilleta is the all-time leading Argentine point-scorer in the Top 14. This season has seen him playing outside new recruit Santiago Arata. The combination is historic in that an Uruguayan-Argentine halves combination is together in elite professional rugby for the first time.
