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Tomás Lavanini has been ruled out of Argentina’s trip to South Africa. The 25-year-old will miss the opening round match of the Rugby Championship on Saturday August 18.
Lavanini is to have eye surgery and awaits confirmation as to whether he will be available for Argentina’s round two match, also against South Africa, seven days after the opening fixture.
With Lavanini out of action Head Coach Mario Ledesma has paired Guido Petti with Matiás Alemanno in training. Also in the 26-man roster are second-row options Marcos Kremer, Ignacio Larrague, and Franco Molina.
Kremer is favored to play flanker, as he did throughout most of the Super Rugby season. Both Larrague and Molina are uncapped.
Lavanini joins Tomás Lezana on the sidelines. The flanker from Northern Argentina is on the recovery trail and is a strong possibility to play in Mendoza. Out for the duration of the Rugby Championship are tighthead Enrique Pieretto, loosehead Javier Díaz, and fullback Joaquín Tuculet.
Ledesma’s 36-man roster began training on Monday in Buenos Aires. Lavanini watched from the sidelines while four others were not active in the team training – inside center Jerónimo de la Fuente, flanker Pablo Matera, wing Ramiro Moyano, and outside center Matías Orlando.
Based on the availability of players Ledesma trained with a team that is unlikely to resemble that which runs-out at Kings Park in Durban in ten days time. The front-row was the same as that from Super Rugby – Santiago García Botta, Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro and Agustín Creevy. Petti and Alemanno locked the scrum while Kremer joined Javier Ortega Desio and Rodrigo Bruni in the back-row. Bruni is uncapped and has not played Super Rugby.
In the backs Gonzalo Bertranou continues to be Ledesma’s preferred scrum-half. He trained as the starting player despite Daniel Hourcade’s permanent names – Martín Landajo and Tomás Cubelli both being in the squad. Nicolás Sánchez partnered Bertrnaou in the halves.
The mid-field contained Bautista Ezcurra and Matiás Moroni, the likely back-up combination to that of de la Fuente and Orlando. Emiliano Boffelli trained at fullback while Sebastián Cancelliere and Bautista Delguy were the wingers.
