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History of the wrong kind was made in Dublin, Ireland today. Tomás Lavanini’s red card for Argentina against Ireland saw him red carded for the third time in his test rugby career. This is more than any other player to have pulled on the jersey for Los Pumas.
Lavanini was send off in the second half by Matthew Carley. The 69th minute incident saw Lavanini making direct shoulder to head contact on Irish prop Cian Healy. There is no question; it was a red card. The test match was Lavanini’s 69 cap.
It was evident that he was less than happy in how the match was going. The same could be seen across many of his teammates. Earlier in the half Pablo Matera hade been yellow carded while Marcos Kremer received a first half penalty for a needless offense. Despite the on-field problems there are to be no changes above; Mario Ledesma will take Argentina to RWC 2023.
The year 2021 was not a good one for Argentina. The team achieved wins over Romania in Bucharest, Wales in Cardiff and Italy in Treviso. Ledesma’s Pumas also competed to a draw in Wales. That match saw Juan Cruz Mallía red carded. The team was never in a winning position in the year’s eight other test matches.
As noted, Lavanini’s red card against Ireland was the third in his test career. His first was against South Africa in 2017. He was sent off for his second yellow card in the match against South Africa in Salta. His second test match red card was against England. It came in a must-win pool match at Rugby World Cup 2019 in Tokyo.
Lavanini’s third red card will be certain to see questions asked over his place in the team and on the roster. Is he a risk selection? How important is he to Los Pumas? Are there other players to take hie place in the match-day 23? Lucas Paulos was unable to start a test match in 2021 and Matías Alemanno missed the November Internationals. In addition, Marcos Kremer started in the second-row at different times of the year.
