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In a mutual agreement between club and player, Lautaro Bazán Vélez terminated his contract with Benetton Treviso. This brings an end to his time playing for the Italian side in the United Rugby Championship (URC). He will continue his career back with Rugby Sevens.
Bazán Vélez made the decision to focus on the abbreviated form of rugby. He is now in back home in Córdoba training for what is to come. He is set to be named on Argentina’s roster for the 2025 Hong Kong 7’s in March.
Los Pumas 7’s successfully defended their title, and dynasty, at the recent Vancouver 7’s. Among the players was Santiago Mare. He also formerly played professional rugby in Italy.
The change for Bazán Vélez comes with him having been a permanent member of the Senior Men’s Pumas roster in 2023-2024. He has 18 test caps, including at Rugby World Cup 2023. He was a replacement in three of the four pool matches. He was the understudy scrum-half against England in Marseilles, and against Chile and Japan in Nantes. He was also a replacement in knock-out matches against Wales in Marseilles, and against New Zealand, and England in Paris.
The starting scrum-halves at the World Cup were Gonzalo Bertranou and Tomás Cubelli. Both men now play their rugby in Major League Rugby. The former had nine starts for Argentina in 2024 while Cubelli was not involved. Bazán Vélez started one test match and Gonzalo García, who plays for Zebre Parma in Italy, had two starts.
Los Pumas will begin their preparations for 2025 in March. Felipe Contepomi will assemble a roster for a camp in London, UK. Bazán Vélez will not be included. This means García and Bertranou are presently Contepomi’s only scrum-halves.
Meanwhile, there is reason to pay close attention to Super Rugby Americas. Pictured below, Agustín Moyano of Los Dogos is well-placed for a call-up. In addition, Simón Benítez Cruz had an excellent match for Los Tarucas in the team’s debut appearance in the South American league.
