Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Benjamín Urdapilleta will depart Castres at the end of this season. The veteran 37-year-old will move from Castres to Clermont. He has signed a one season contract until 2024 with the option of a one year extension.
The move will see Urdapilleta reunite with his former coach Christophe Urios. The Urdapilleta and Urios combination has won both the Pro D2 and the Top 14. Oyonnax won promotion to the Top 14 and went on to play in the play-off’s. Both men then joined Castres and won the French championship title in 2018. Urios departed Castres in 2019 and Urdapilleta now departs in 2023.
The move will also see Clermont having four Pumas on their roster. Second-rower Tomás Lavanini recently signed a new deal to remain at the club. Winger Bautista Delguy joined the club this season from Perpignan. Urdapilleta’s arrival will come alongside that of Marcos Kremer. He joins from Stade Français.
All four are in contention for places on Argentina’s roster at Rugby World Cup 2023. They all played at Rugby World Cup 2019 and also all played for Los Pumas in 2022. Urdapilleta will make the move from Clermont to Castres with 19 test caps to his name.
Urdapilleta is the highest-scoring active player in the Top 14. He is the 6th highest-scorer of all-time. In moving to Clermont and remaining active he will be able to rise higher. He has scored 191 points this season for Castres.
Earlier on this season Urdapilleta overtook Gaetan Germain’s tally of 2164 points. The leading point scorer is former French test player Richard Dourthe. He played for six different clubs and scored a total of 3040 points. Former Castres fullback Romain Teulet is second with 2612 points. Brock James, Dimitri Yachvili and Jonathan Wisniewski round out the top five.
