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Chile’s starting fly half from Rugby World Cup 2023 will now continue his career in Italy. Rodrigo Fernández has signed to play for Petraca Padova in Italy’s Top Tier, the Serie A Elite.
The move will see Fernández able to use plenty of his native language; Argentines play for Petrarca. They include hooker Thomas Montilla, prop Gonzalo Hughes, second-rower Diego Sebastián Galleto, N8 Mariano Romanini and fullback Marcos di Sanctis. Romanini and di Sanctis are former Super Rugby Americas players.
Fernández scored the World Rugby Try of the Year in 2022. He won the award in November 2022. It capped off a truly remarkable year for Fernández and for Chile. Los Cóndores qualified for the Rugby World Cup for the first time.
Fernández was involved in tries through Chile’s Rugby World Cup Qualifiers. However, the Try which saw him winning the award was actually in a losing effort. Chile lost 22-21 against the USA in Santiago. Chile needed to win away by two or more to qualify which they managed to accomplish in Denver.
Chile’s successful qualification for Rugby World Cup 2023 sent the USA to repechage. The result is that the USA joined Canada in missing out on playing at the World Cup while South America have a record three competitors. Rugby World Cup 2023 featured Chile, Uruguay and Argentina but no North Americans.
Had the USA been able to perform better at home against Chile then perhaps everything would have been different. Fernández was a big part of the USA’s shock loss to Chile in Denver. Los Cóndores completed a sensational 31-29 upset with Fernández making the plays from fly half.
Fernández was also named by Americas Rugby news as the scorer of the Americas’ best try from 2021. It was also in a World Cup Qualifier, this time against Canada. It was the match that saw Chile advancing while eliminating Canada.
With the World Cup over teams and players are now preparing for the new cycle. Fernández is the second Chilean World Cup player to secure a contract in Italy in the past week. He followed prop Vittorio Lastra to Italy. In addition, scrum-half Nicolás Herreros has signed to play in Portugal.
Of note is that all but three of Chile’s roster for the World Cup were Selknam players from Super Rugby Americas 2023. Los Cóndores will have more players in foreign leagues in 2024 with clubs from Europe and North America recruiting from Chile. Petarca is to be Fernández’ first foreign experience.
Fernández is from the COBS club in Santiago del Chile. Seven COBS players were named on Chile’s roster for the World Cup. Fernández had a busy and impressive World Cup. He scored Chile’s first try, doing so against Japan in Toulouse. He started in all of Chile’s matches, doing so against Samoa in Bordeaux, England in Lille and Argentina in Nantes.
