Jaguares to be drafted into SLAR teams

Los Jaguares will not play in Super Rugby in 2021. The team is yet to be confirmed for a competition. The competition that they do play in will not be the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR). This past weeks confirmation of the 2021 league noted that there will be six teams with a Colombian team (Los Cafeteros Pro) being the new competitor.

According to Daniel Hourcade, the Jaguares players who remain undefeated contract with the UAR will enter a draft. The draft will see the SLAR teams bid for the players. That is to say Los Jaguares’ players will be spread across all six SLAR franchises.

Los Ceibos CEO Fernando Riccomi is very welcoming of the possibility. He told Cuarto Tiempo that:

“I would more than love it; we need to have them. Give me the best Argentine players that you can and I’ll be the happiest guy in the universe because the final objective is to be champions.”

Players available for the draft will be under contracts to the UAR in 2021. The player exodus has seen eight forwards departing Los Jaguares. They are Matías Alemanno to Gloucester, Agustín Creevy to London Irish, Marcos Kremer to Stade Français, Tomás Lezana, Santiago Medrano and Julián Montoya, to the Western Force, Lucas Paulos to Brive, and Guido Petti to Bordeaux.

Departing backs are Tomás Cubelli and Domingo Miotti to the Western Force, Joaquín Díaz Bonilla and Matías Moroni to the Leicester Tigers, Jerónimo de la Fuente to Perpignan, Bautista Delguy to Bordeaux, Matías Orlando to the Newcastle Falcons, Santiago Carreras joined Gloucester and Joaquín Tuculet to the Toronto Arrows.

Further departures are upcoming. Among them are Mateo Carreras and Santiago Grondona to the Newcastle Falcons, Ignacio Calás, and Lucio Sordoni to the Melbourne Rebels, Emiliano Boffelli to Racing 92, and Santiago Chocobares to the Blues.

The remaining Jaguares players are either finishing their contracts this month or they are contracted in 2021. Francisco Gorrissen’s contract ends this month. Juan Cruz Mallía and Javier Ortega Desio have ben rumored to moves to Toulouse. Notwithstanding, the trio are all presently considered for a SLAR player draft. The above mentioned names linked to moves are not included. The list of players is displayed below.

 

SLAR 2021 – JAGUARES PLAYER DRAFT

LOOSE HEAD
Javier Díaz, Joel Sclavi, Mayco Vivas,* Juan Pablo Zeiss

HOOKER
Santiago Socino*

TIGHT HEAD
Joel Sclavi, Juan Pablo Zeiss*

BACK-ROW
Francisco Gorrissen,* Javier Ortega Desio, Bautista Pedemonte

SCRUM HALF
Gonzalo Bertranou,* Felipe Ezcurra*

FLY HALF
Tomás Albornoz

CENTER
Juan Pablo Castro, Juan Cruz Mallía*

WING
Sebastián Cancelliere

* Played in the 2020 Tri Nations.