Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
The Jaguares player exodus continues. Gonzalo Bertranou has departed Argentina for Wales. The 27-year-old will play for Pro 14 side the Dragons. The Dragons are the eastern-most Welsh region. The team plays home matches in Wales’ third largest city, Newport.
Bertranou was Mario Ledesma’s preferred scrum-half in 2018. In 2019 he was injured after just one match of Super Rugby. This resulted in Cubelli becoming the starting no 9 and Ezcurra subsequently moving ahead of Martín Landajo.
The four players are the only active capped Argentine scrum-halves. Three of them are now no longer playing in Argentina. Landajo plays for Harlequins in the English Premiership, Cubelli for the Western Force in Australia Super Rugby and Bertranou in the Pro 14. Felipe Ezcurra will be the starting scrum-half for Los Jaguares XV in the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR).
Bertranou moves to the Dragons as a seasoned player. He was a part of Los Jaguares in the 2016-2020 Super Rugby campaigns. He earned the opportunity in Super Rugby after advancing through the Argentine High Performance Center (PladAR) system.
Bertranou is a product of Los Tordos rugby in Mendoza. He captained Cuyo in the Argentine Provincial Championship.
Prior to being capped by Argentina he played for the Argentina XV. He captained the team in the 2015 Nations Cup. The Argentina played against Namibia, Romania, and Spain. He made his test debut that same year against Paraguay.
His Super Rugby season was cut short in 2019. He was injured in the opening math of the season. He returned to be a late entrant into Argentina’s roster for RWC 2019. He was a try scorer in the win over the USA.
He played in all four of Argentina’s Tri Nations matches in 2020. He was a replacement for Tomás Cubelli in the history-making win over New Zealand in Sydney. He started in the first of two draws against Australia and was a replacement in Los Pumas’ two other matches. He has 29 caps for his country.
Gonzalo Bertranou is a second generation Puma. His father, Miguel Bertranou earned 14 caps for Argentina from 1988-1993. He was a flanker.
The Dragons have Welsh scrum halves Rhodri Williams and Tavis Knoyle in addition to Englishman Luke Baldwin on their roster. Bertranou is to be the first Argentine Dragon in high years. The last was Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro who played for the Dragons in 2013-2014. He played with Bertranou at Los Jaguares from 2016-2020.
