Even without an official presentation as head coach of
Los Pumas
,
Felipe Contepomi
made official his first call for the
Camp Puma
in London, a concentration scheduled for March 11, 12 and 13, four months before the start of the official competition that will serve as a point starting point of his leadership in the Argentine rugby team.
Although it is about the continuity of the work of the Australian
Michael Cheika
, who shaped the staff that he will now be in charge of and in which
Andrés Bordoy
and
Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe
will continue as assistants, the final word belongs to Contepomi.
For 24 of the 31 called up,
it will be the reunion
after the last game of the
2023 World Cup in France
, the defeat against
England
at the
Stade France
for third place.
Of the seven who did not participate in the championship, none is unknown since they had been part of the group and were left out, mainly due to injuries.
With the exception of
Franco Molina
, captain of the
Dogos XV
franchise , the rest of those called up play in different European league teams.
This explains, at least partially, the absence of
Pablo Matera
and
Nicolás Sánchez
, who play in the Japanese league.
The Pumas meet again!
💪
🏉 Camp 2024
📍 London
📆 March 11 to 13 #SomosLosPumas pic.twitter.com/WRLYWuhRNG
— Los Pumas (@lospumas) February 28, 2024
In addition to Matera and Sánchez, the other absent World Cup players are
Martín Bogado
, the historic and
record holder
Agustín Creevy
,
Tomás Cubelli
,
Francisco Gómez Kodela
- the only one who publicly resigned from the team -,
Juan Imhoff
,
Facundo Isa
,
Rodrigo Isgró
, and
Lucas Paulos
, who joined after the injury that took the former captain of Los Pumas out of France 2023.
Those who will be in London and watched the World Cup on TV are
Tomás Albornoz
,
Santiago Cordero
,
Bautista Delguy
,
Franco Molina
,
Lucio Sordoni
,
Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro
and
Santiago Grondona
.
Of that roster, the last two were sidelined due to injury, while Sordoni worked alongside the squad as a possible replacement, but he was also ruled out.
Of the World Cup Pumas, 24 were called up again:
Matías Alemanno
,
Lautaro Bazán Vélez
,
Eduardo Bello
,
Gonzalo Bertranou
,
Emiliano Boffelli
,
Rodrigo Bruni
,
Mateo Carreras
and
Santiago Carreras.
Completing the roster are
Santiago Chocobares
,
Lucio Cinti
,
Jerónimo De La Fuente
,
Thomas Gallo
,
Juan Martín González
,
Marcos Kremer
,
Tomás Lavanini
,
Juan Cruz Mallía
,
Julián Montoya
,
Matías Moroni
,
Joaquín Oviedo
,
Guido Petti
,
Pedro Rubiolo
,
Ignacio Ruiz
,
Joel Sclavi
and
Mayco Vivas
.
“This meeting is a very good opportunity to see each other again, after what was an intense last year.
Although the monitoring and contact with the players was never interrupted, the intention is to be together again to review everything that has been done so far in the last two years, see where we are going and how we can improve for the new World Cup cycle. that begins,” Contepomi indicated on the website of the Argentine Rugby Union (
UAR
).
The 2024 calendar has a dozen commitments planned for Los Pumas.
The first of them will be on July 6 in Argentina, to face
France
and inaugurate the international window that will be completed with a second duel against
Les Bleus
and the remaining match with a rival that has not yet been confirmed, but corresponds to the Tier segment. 2.
With that base of 31 players and possibly more called up, Contepomi will face his first
Rugby Championship
as head coach , with a program between August 10 and September 28, in an edition that will resume the six games - the last World Cup was just three - of which they will face
Australia
twice at home and
South Africa
once .
The two games against the
All Blacks
will be in New Zealand and the remaining one against the
Springboks
, also as a visitor.
The closing of the year will be determined by the tour that will take Los Pumas to
Italy
,
Ireland
and
France
with test matches scheduled for November 9, 16 and 23.