Argentina will play a home Rugby Championship match in Santa Fé for the first time. Lisandro Olearo reports that Los Pumas will take-on Australia on September 07 at the Estadio Brigadier General Estanislao López in Santa Fé.
The match will be the first Los Pumas appearance in Santa Fé since 2018. The first Argentine home match in Santa Fé was against Ireland in 2007. Felipe Contepomi landed a drop-goal for a famous 22-20 win.
Additional Pumas matches have been against England, Italy and Stade Français. Contepomi played at Santa Fé again in 2012. This time it was for Stade Français. He did not play for Argentina in the inaugural Rugby Championship but did so in 2012. He earned his final cap against Australia in Rosario, the largest city in Santa Fé province.
Now in 2024, Contepomi is in his rookie year as Head Coach of Los Pumas. Contepomi’s Pumas will open the 2024 Rugby Championship away to New Zealand. The All Blacks will host Los Pumas for two matches while Argentina will host Australia twice later on in the tournament. The second will be the Santa Fé match.
Santa Fé will be the seventh Argentine city to host a Rugby Championship match. It joins Buenos Aires, La Plata, Mendoza, Rosario, Salta and San Juan. A relocated match saw Argentina facing Australia in London, England in 2016.