Los Pumas head coach Daniel Hourcade has named a thirty man squad to under go a high performance training regime in Pensacola, Florida. Notable is the selection of thirteen players yet to appear in a Rugby Championship match. In going for a high contingent of PladAR players el huevo has continued with the non-selection of players previously thought of as being first choice members of a full-strength Pumas lineup.
Left out are Patricio Albacete, Marcos Ayerza, Santiago Fernández, Eusebio Guiñazú and Goznalo Tiesi. Despite Hourcade having said otherwise the international futures of these players is now severely in question.
The players named are to travel to the USA on Wednesday June 25 and return on July 10 to get ready for the final stage of Rugby Championship preparation in which Argentina will play host to Top 14 club Grenoble.
Prior to selecting his squad for the June internationals against Ireland and Scotland Hourcade made it clear that he was not interested in players who were free to play in June but not so for the Rugby Championship. He consequently opted against the selection of a number of players who had taken to the field under Santiago Phelan in June internationals in 2012, 2013 or both.
The approach was based on a philosophy of building a team and not getting side-tracked. Hourcade consequently had a team averaging 23 years of age taking to the field against Scotland last weekend. The disastrous late loss saw Argentina fall to 12th in the IRB World Rankings behind not only Scotland and Samoa but also Japan and Fiji.
According to Hourcadism it was a price worth paying. While Argentina lost three tests it gained valuable experience with domestic based players set to be a part of the squad for the Rugby Championship now better prepared than in previous years. In total eighteen of the thirty players named are now based in Argentina, some having returned home from abroad but most have simply been selected ahead of players unwanted by Hourcade.
Gone are the famous five of Albacete, Ayerza, Fernández, Guiñazú and Tiesi, some of whom are players accused of being in the anti-Phelan camp which led to a change of coaches last October. But politics has not been the only motivating factor. Hourcade has also let go players with little chance of being at the top of their games at Rugby World Cup 2015 and beyond.
Players said to have been let go due to age include Guiñazú, Juan Pablo Orlandi and Julio Farías Cabello. All were mainstays under Phelan but none were ever likely to be regulars in 2015. Hourcade has acted swiftly to invest in others as illustrated in his selections with the likes of Matías Cortese, Ramiro Herrera and Javier Ortega Desio replacing these players.
All three were involved in Argentina’s recent test matches are were Matías Díaz and Manuel Carizza who will not be present in Pensacola. They are instead going to be involved with their Super Rugby franchises and expected to both join up with the squad after it has returned from North America in July.
Also missing are five players who had been strong candidates to make the match day 23 and even start tests. Gabriel Ascárate, Maximilano Bustos, Gonzalo Camacho, Juan Figallo and Benjamín Macome have all been forced out of the Rugby Championship through injury. With both Bustos and Figallo missing the non-selection of Ayerza is extremely questionable. It will, however, enable el Toro the opportunity to be in the best possible condition for 2015 due to him having been rested from June-September of this year.
The desire to experiment has indeed seen the selection of highly promising plasyers including Santiago Cordero, Javier Ortega Desio, Lucas Noguera Paz and Manuel Montero. Missing, however, is Patricio Fernández whose place in the squad has been taken by Santiago González Iglesias. Also selected is back-rower Tomás De la Vega, a player severely underused by Phelan.
| Player | Club | Union | Position |
| Horacio Agulla | Bath | England | Wing |
| Matías Alemanno | La Tablada | Córdoba | Second-row |
| Rodrigo Báez | Licio RC | Cuyo | Back-row |
| Marcelo Bosch | Saracens | England | Centre |
| Santiago Cordero | Regatas | Buenos Aires | Fullback |
| Matías Cortese | Licio RC | Cuyo | Hooker |
| Agustín Creevy | Worcester Warriors | England | Hooker |
| Tomás Cubelli | Belgrano | Buenos Aires | Scrum-half |
| Jerónimo De la Fuente | Duendes | Rosario | Centre |
| Tomás De La Veja | CUBA | Buenos Aires | Back-row |
| Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe | Toulon | France | Back-row |
| Mariano Galarza | Gloucester | England | Second-row |
| Lucas González Amorosino | Unattached | Wing | |
| Santiago González Iglesias | Asociación Alumni | Buenos Aires | Fly half |
| Juan Martín Hernández | Racing Métro | France | Fullback |
| Ramiro Herrera | Castres Olympique | France | Tighthead Prop |
| Juan Imhoff | Racing Métro | France | Wing |
| Martín Landajo | CASI | Buenos Aires | Scrum-half |
| Tomás Lavanini | Racing Métro | France | Second-row |
| Juan Manuel Leguizamón | Toulon | France | Back-row |
| Pablo Matera | Leicester Tigers | England | Back-row |
| Manuel Montero | Pucurá | Buenos Aires | Wing |
| Lucas Noguera Paz | Lince | Tucumán | Loosehead Prop |
| Matías Orlando | Huirapuca | Tucumán | Wing |
| Javier Ortega Desio | Estudiantes | Entrerriana | Back-row |
| Bruno Postiglioni | La Plata | Buenos Aires | Loosehead Prop |
| Nicolás Sánchez | Unattached | Fly half | |
| Leonardo Senatore | Worcester Warriors | England | Back-row |
| Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro | La Plata | Buenos Aires | Tighthead Prop |
| Joaquín Tuculet | Unattached | Fullback |
Story Sourced from : http://rugbyworldcup-argentina2023.blogspot.com.br/
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