The Pumas will meet on Monday in Buenos Aires. In front of them, two major competitions, two months apart. First, Argentina will play the Rugby Championship (the “Tournament” of the southern hemisphere) from July 8. The Argentinians will play 3 matches in the month, the competition will end on the 29th. Two months later, the World Cup will take place in France, from September 8 to October 28.
These two successive deadlines are the main reason for the selection of 48 players, at the Pumas. Among this long list, there are 18 familiar names from the Top 14 including Santiago Chocobares and Juan Cruz Mallia (Stade Toulousain), Nicolas Sanchez (Brive) or Juan Imhoff (Racing 92).
Here is the full list of the 48 selected:
Arrières : Lautaro Bazan Velez (Rovigo), Gonzalo Bertranou (Dragons), Tomas Cubelli (Biarritz), Gonzalo Garcia (Zebre), Tomas Albornoz (Benetton), Santiago Carreras (Gloucester), Nicolas Sanchez (Brive), Santiago Chocobares (Toulouse) , Jeronimo de la Fuente (Perpignan), Matias Orlando (Newcastle), Lucio Cinti (London Irish), Luciano Gonzalez (Pumas 7), Matias Moroni (Newcastle), Emiliano Boffelli (Édimbourg), Sebastian Cancelliere (Glasgow), Mateo Carreras ( Newcastle), Santiago Cordero (Connacht), Bautista Delguy (Clermont), Juan Imhoff (Racing 92), Rodrigo Isgro (Pumas 7), Martin Bogado (Highlanders), Juan Cruz Mallia (Toulouse).
Leading men: Ignacio Calles (Pau), Thomas Gallo (Benneton), Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro (Benetton), Marco Vivas (Gloucester), Facundo Bosch (Bayonne), Agustin Creevy (London Irish), Julián Montoya (Leicester), Santiago Socino (Gloucester) ), Ignacio Ruiz (London Irish), Eduardo Bello (Newcastle), Francisco Gomez Kodela (Lyon), Santiago Medrano (Western Force), Joel Sclavi (La Rochelle), Lucio Sordoni (Glasgow), Matias Alemanno (Gloucester), Tomas Lavanini (Clermont), Guido Petti (Bordeaux), Lucas Paulos (Bayonne), Juan Martin Gonzalez (London Irish), Santiago Grondona (Pau), Facundo Isa (Toulon), Marcos Kremer (Clermont), Pedro Rubiolo (Newcastle), Rodrigo Bruni (Bayonne), Pablo Matera (Honda Heat), Joaquin Oviedo (Perpignan).