Emiliano Boffelli will not play for Argentina in 2024

“He’s going to have to undergo a surgical opinion from surgeons and see what the next step is on his way back to recovery.”

“It’s definitely not a couple of weeks. We’re looking at probably four to five months here.”

Boffelli is a regular starting member of Argentina’s first-choice team. The 29-year-old Rosarino has 59 caps for Argentina. He and Mateo Carreras were Argentina’s starting wingers at Rugby World Cup 2023. Juan Cruz Mallía was the starting fullback.

Boffelli’s made his test debut in 2017. He was nominated by World Rugby for the Breakout Player of the Year award. It came with him playing eleven test matches for Argentina that year. Ten were on the wing and one was at fullback.

He moved to fullback in 2018. He started in Argentina’s win over South Africa in Mendoza and also in the win over Australia on the Gold Coast. He played fullback throughout 2019. His strong season of Super Rugby included a try in the Semi Final win over the Brumbies in Buenos Aires. He was Argentina’s starting fullback at RWC 2019.

Returning to wing under Michael Cheika, Boffelli demonstrated his abilities in famous away victories for his country. He scored 20 points for Argentina in the 25-18 win over the All Blacks in Christchurch in 2022 and 25 points in the 30-29 win over England in London. His combined goal-kicking accuracy from the matches was 15/16 or 93.75%.

ARGENTINA – OPTIONS TO REPLACE BOFFELLI FOR NOVEMBER

In addition to having held down a starting spot for Los Pumas, Boffelli is also Argentina’s first-choice goal-kicker. His is irreplaceable from this perspective; there are no Pumas wingers or fullbacks recognized as being elite level goal-kickers.

In his absence, Felipe Contepomi returned to the orthodox policy of goal-kicking fly halves. Santiago Carreras started against France in Mendoza and Buenos Aires, against New Zealand in Wellington and Auckland and against Australia in La Plata this year. Tomás Albornoz started at fly half against Uruguay in Punta del Este, against Australia in Santa Fe and against South Africa in Santiago del Estero and Nelspruit.

Four players have featured at fullback for Argentina in 2024. Martín Bogado started the first test match of the year with Santiago Cordero taking over for the second test match against France and also starting against Uruguay. Juan Cruz Mallía started 5 out of 6 matches in the Rugby Championship. Santiago Carreras started the final match.

Wingers for these same test matches include Mateo Carreras, Santiago Cordero, Bautista Delguy, Rodrigo Isgró and Matías Moroni. Ignacio Mendy was unused in the Rugby Championship as was Martín Bogado.

Mateo Carreras has started every match for Argentina so far this year. Bautista Delguy joined him as the other starting winger in both matches against France. Ignacio Mendy started against Uruguay. Matías Moroni started both matches against New Zealand. Santiago Cordero and Bautista Delguy had one start each against Australia. Delguy also had a start against South Africa with Rodrigo Isgró starting the final fixture of the Rugby Championship.

Additional names are on the radar for the November Internationals. Santiago Pernas was called-up by Felipe Contepomi ahead of the home match against South Africa. Mateo Soler trained with the roster this year. He is the record try scorer in Super Rugby Americas.

Bristol Bears rookie Benjamín Elizalde is a Puma in waiting; he had an outstanding World Rugby u20 Championship earlier this year. Both Pernas and Elizalde are uncapped. They played Super Rugby Americas 2024 for Los Pampas. Gerónimo Prisciantelli has played fullback, fly half and inside center for Zebre in the URC. Elizalde, Prisciantelli, Pernas and Soler are all uncapped.