Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Lautaro Simes received a call-up today to Los Pumas. It comes following a season of Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) for Colombian side Los Cafeteros Pro. Simes is young and uncapped and is set to travel with Los Pumas to South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.
Simes was a regular for Los Cafeteros in SLAR this year. His performances saw him attracting interest; Ignacio Fernández Lobbe selected him for the Argentina XV to face Uruguay last month. Simes was a try scorer for Argentina’s next-of-XV.
Fernández Lobbe started Federico Gutiérrez and Ignacio Calás in the second-row. He had Jaguares XV second-rower Rodrigo Fernández Criado playing flanker against Uruguay. Simes now joins Fernández Criado on the roster for the Rugby Championship.
The call-up comes with Lucas Paulos out of the roster. Paulos made his test debut for Argentina in the 2020 Rugby Championship. He did so with players rotated and Tomás Lavanini unavailable through injury. Lavanini is back for the 2021 tournament and Marcos Kremer is now playing second-row rather than flanker.
Simes is a product of Tala RC in Córdoba. Matías Alemanno, Facundo Gigena, Enrique Pieretto, Joaquín Oviedo, Juan Mallía, and Santiago Carreras are also all from Córdoba.
