Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
The week started with Argentina naming a star-studded 33-man roster for Rugby World Cup 2023. Julián Montoya leads a side containing players who have defeated teams including Australia, England, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales in recent campaigns.
The captain plays his rugby in England for the Leicester Tigers. He and his teammates represent a who’s who of professional rugby. The English Premiership, United Rugby Championship (URC), Super Rugby and Top 14 are all represented.
Fourteen players will play in their first Rugby World Cup, seven in their second. Montoya, Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, Matías Alemanno, Tomás Lavanini, Guido Petti, Pablo Matera, Tomás Cubelli, Jerónimo de la Fuente, Juan Imhoff and Matías Moroni will all play in their third Rugby World Cup while Agustín Creevy and Nicolás Sánchez will play in their fourth.
The roster contains players from across the country. Every player comes from Argentina. There are no players qualifying via a grandparent, parent or via completing residency. All members of the 33-man roster qualify on birth.
The roster also sees the non-inclusion of big-name players. Despite taking four wingers Santiago Cordero and Bautista Delguy are both absent. Center Matías Orlando played in both the 2020 and 2022 wins over New Zealand but missed out too.
Santiago Medrano was the second-choice tight head at RWC 2019 but was not selected. Fellow tight head Lucio Sordoni started against New Zealand in the 2023 Rugby Championship but also missed out. Another left out is Lucas Paulos. The second-rower started against South Africa in Johannesburg.
While there can only be 33-places on a World Cup roster, the missing names showcases that Argentina’s depth chart is bigger than in prior World Cup years.
ARGENTINA – WORLD CUP 2023 ABSENT XV
1 Mayco Vivas
2 Facundo Bosch
3 Lucio Sordoni
4 Lucas Paulos
5 Franco Molina
6 Francisco Gorrissen
7 Tomás Lezana
8 Joaquín Oviedo
9 Gonzalo García
10 Tomás Albornoz
11 Santiago Cordero
12 Lucas Mensa
13 Matías Orlando (capt.)
14 Bautista Delguy
15 Ignacio Mendy
16 Santiago Socino
17 Ignacio Calles
18 Santiago Medrano
19 Lautaro Simes
20 Rodrigo Fernández Criado
21 Eliseo Morales
22 Domingo Miotti
23 Sebastián Cancelliere
A team such as that above would be competitive many teams against at the World Cup. It is stronger than the Argentina XV side that won both games on tour against Georgia and Portugal in 2022.
Below is a list of players who have appeared for Los Pumas in rosters and or international campaigns during the RWC 2019-2023 cycle.
| PLAYER | POS | CLUB | CAPS |
| Ignacio Calles * | LH | Pau (UK) | 2 |
| Facundo Gigena | LH | Pau (FR) | 7 |
| Mayco Vivas | LH | Gloucester (UK) | 18 |
| Facundo Bosch | HK | Bayonne (FR) | 12 |
| Santiago Socino | HK | Gloucester (UK) | 6 |
| Santiago Medrano | TH | Lyon (FR) / Western Force (AU) | 31 |
| Enrique Pieretto | TH | Glasgow Warriors (UK) | 25 |
| Lucio Sordoni | TH | Glasgow Warriors (UK) | 4 |
| Juan Pablo Zeiss | TH | Dallas Jackals (US) | 7 |
| Rodrigo Fernández Criado | LO/FL | Pampas | – |
| Federico Lavanini | LO | Pampas | – |
| Franco Molina * | LO | Dogos | – |
| Lucas Paulos | LO | Bayonne (FR) | 12 |
| Lautaro Simes | LO | Dogos | – |
| Tomás Lezana | FL | Montauban (FR) | 40 |
| Francisco Gorrissen | FL | Vannes (FR) | 2 |
| Joaquín Oviedo | N8/FL | Perpignan (FR) | 1 |
| Felipe Ezcurra | SH | Grenoble (FR) | 16 |
| Gonzalo García | SH | Zebre (IT) | 3 |
| Eliseo Morales * | SH | Pampas | 1 |
| Tomás Albornoz | FH | Benetton (IT) | 5 |
| Domingo Miotti | FH | Oyonnax (FH) | 5 |
| Benjamín Urdapilleta | FH | Clermont (FR) | 19 |
| Lucas Mensa | CE | Oyonnax (FR) | 3 |
| Matías Orlando | CE | Newcastle Falcons (UK) | 58 |
| Sebastián Cancelliere | WI | Glasgow Warriors (UK) | 8 |
| Santiago Cordero | WI | Connacht (IE) | 50 |
| Bautista Delguy | WI | Clermont (FR) | 25 |
| Facundo Cordero | FB/WI | Glasgow Warriors (UK) | 1 |
| Ignacio Mendy | FB/WI | Benetton (I) | 1 |
* Denotes that player is Injured
