Top 14 Barrage Preview

Castres vs Montpellier

The Top 14 barrage will kick-off shortly with the first of two knock-out matches being taking place in France. Today´s match sees Castres play host to Montpellier in what is a rematch of last seasons barrage encounter in which Martín Bustos Moyano booted Montpellier into a first ever Top 14 Semi Final. Ther one time capped Argentine winger will start the match on the left wing, retaining the goalkicking duties and will be joined by four other Pumas with Juan Figallo starting at loosehead prop and Santiago Fernández at inside centre, just like they did 12 months ago. The trio will be joined by another Pumas forward and a back in the starting XV with Lucas González Amorosino playing fullback and Agustín Creevy playing hooker. The form of all five players has been impressive this season and all will feature for Los Pumas in The Rugby Championship. A sixth Argentine player, Maximilano Bustos is also on the Montpellier card, as a replacement. He is uncapped despite having been a part of the Argentine squad at New Zealand 2011. The opposition, Castres, do not have any Pumas but do have a South American with Uruguay´s Rodrigo Capó Ortega on the bench.

Toulon vs Racing Métro

The second barrage play-off match will be played on Saturday with Toulon playing host to Racing Métro. Both sides will have Pumas players with Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe starting at 8 for Toulon and to other Juan´s starting for the Paris based opposition. Pulling the strings at flyhalf will be Juan Martín Hernández who has been impvoing this season after a slow start and wil be joined by a player who 21 months ago was an unknown, Juan Imhoff. The young speedster will play on the left wing while former Pumas backrower, Alvaro Galindo has been named on the bench.

Leo Senatore to captain first Pumas test of 2012

Los Pumas World Cup backrower, Leo Senatore has been given the honor of captaining Argentina in its first test of the year as Los Pumas take on Uruguay in Santiago, Chile on Sunday. In what is to only be his fifth international appearance, the man from Rosario will lead a team packed with players from the Los Pampas XV side which reached the Quarter Finals of South Africa´s Vodacom Cup. Such is the experimentation of the squad that Senatore is the only player who played in last years Rugby World Cup to be in the team. Others to have played in New Zealand who are a part of Los Pampas XV have been rested and are not a part of the 26 man squad for the South American Championship in which Argentina will also face Brazil and Chile over the next week.

Having just turned 28, Senatore is a player to keep an eye on in 2012 as Argentina are to have three home tests in June followed by home and away fixtures vs Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in The Rugby Championship and then a three test tour to Europe in November. Senatore, having returned from a stint in the Top 14 with Toulon is widely expected to be in Argentina´s starting XV to face Tier One opposition. He is likely to join Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe and Juan Manuel Leguizamón in forming the first choice backrow. 

Besides Senatore the other players who could well play in the June internationals are winger Manuel Montero, scrumhalf Martín Landajo and secondrower Santiago Guzmán. replacements Bruno Postiglioni and Tomás Cubelli are also players to watch out for. 

Argentina

1- Roberto Tejerizo

2- Martín García Veiga

3- Gastón Cortéz

4- Santiago Guzmán

5- Benjamín Macome

6- Lisandro Ahualli de Chazal

7- Javier Ortega Desio

8- Leonardo Senatore (captain)

9- Martín Landajo

10- Valentín Cruz

11- Manuel Montero

12- Javier Rojas

13- Matías Orlando

14- Diego Palma

15- Ramiro Moyano

Reserves:

16- Ignacio Saenz Lancuba

17- Bruno Postiglioni

18- César Fruttero

19- Nicolás Azzorin

20- Tomás Cubelli

21- Stéfano Ambrosio

22- Facundo Barrea

Esteban Lozada joins Agen on two year deal

As pointed out previously on Argentina2023, former Pumas secondrower Esteban Lozada will be playing his rugby in France next season following the end of his two year contract with Edinburgh. While playing in Scotland, Lozada fell out of favor with Pumas selectors despite making 34 appearances for Edinburgh in Celtic-Italian League (Rabo Direct Pro 12) and Heineken Cup matches. Lozada now has the chance to play his way back into Los Pumas playing for his new club, Agen. His contract with the Southwestern French club is for two years and marks a return to the Top 14 after he had previously played for Toulon from 2007-2010.

His return to France comes on the back of his performances vs Top 14 side Racing Métro in the Heineken Cup in which the Scottish side defeated the Parisians both home and away. Talks with Agen started in January with the club liking what they saw from the former Puma. Now aged 30, Lozada, it would seem, has one final chance of representing his country as Argentina are set to play a record twelve tests in 2012. Should he not return it would be a tough road making the squad considering 2013 will officially be the start of preperation for Rugby World Cup 2015. He is the same age as Argentina´s leading secondrwoer, Patricio Albacete, and older than the three others who went to Rugby World Cup 2011.

Fernández Lobbe to start for Toulon

Fernández Lobbe leaves Wellington injured

For the first time since September, Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe willl start a rugby match. The Pumas World Cup exited the tournament early due to a major knee injury suffered in the first half of the crunch pool match against Scotland in Wellington. His rehabiliation was handled correctly to ensure he returned at 100% and he has been used by Toulon on two occassions from the bench in Top 14 matches vs Agen and Castres. His return to face Toulouse is  great timing for both Toulon and Argentina as there is one month to go in the French season and Argentina have a challenging set of matches next month which will see Los Pumas host Italy in San Juan for a one off match before tacking on France in Córdoba and Tucumán.

Fernández Lobbe is the leading contender forthe Pumas captaincy now that Felipe Contepomi is set to retire from international duty. The other player seemingly in the running to lead Los Pumas is Patricio Albacete who will be playing secondrow in this match.

Toulon
15 Lapeyre
14 Palisson
13 Messina
12 Giteau
11 Smith
10 Wilkinson
9 Tillous-Borde
8 Fernández Lobbe
7 Armitage
6 van Niekerk
5 Samson
4 Botha
3 Hayman
2 Bruno
1 Lewis-Roberts

Amlin Challenge Cup - Semi Finals Wrap

Toulon 32-29 Stade Français

Toulon struggled to a tight win against Stade Français to reach the final, thanks to the boot of Jonny Wilkinson securing a late drop goal for the win.

At home, against a very much weakened Stade Français team, Toulon were expected to win much more comfortably, but with a massive wind helping Stade Français in the first half they helped themselves to an early lead as young fly half Jules Plisson looked comfortable and assured with the boot.

When Toulon had the wind on their backs, several penalties from Jonny Wilkinson soon put them back into the lead, but Stade didn't give up and were in the match right up until the end when Wilkinson struck the winning drop goal.

There was no representation from the Americas in this match, with Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe on the sidelines.

American Takudzwa Ngwenya
evades the tackle of Argentine
Agustín Figuerola

Biarritz 19-0 Brive

Biarritz made it two home wins out of two in the semi finals as pretty much everybody expected as soon as the semi final draw was made.

Like Stade Français, Brive played a weakened side, but only slightly weakened compared to Stade's ransacked side.

The game was a very dull one, played in soaking conditions with two teams not playing much rugby, the excitement of the match lessened further when it became clear early on that Biarritz were not going to lose as well.

For Biarritz American Takudzwa "Zee" Ngwenya played the entire match on the wing, as did Argentine centre Marcelo Bosch who started at fly half, lock Manuel Carizza who is leaving the Basque side at the end of the season also started, whilst tighthead prop Franciso Gómez Kodela came off the bench.

For Brive Argentine scrum half Agustín Figuerola played the entire match whilst loosehead prop Pablo Henn came off the bench.

The Amlin Challenge Cup final will be played at the Twickenham Stoop on Wednesday the 18th of May between Toulon and Biarritz.


If Toulon win, the team that finishes seventh in the Top 14 will qualify for the 2012/13 Heineken Cup, if Biarritz win then they will qualify instead.

Juan Fernández Lobbe returns for Toulon

After over 200 days of rehabilitation following his World Cup ending knee injury during Argentina´s third pool match of last years World Cup, Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe is set return to action. He has missed the entire season thus far for Toulon and was replaced by fellow Argentine, Leonardo Senatore as a medical joker at the club. His return has now been confirmed with him named in the group of players to face Agen on Saturday in a round 23 match of the Top 14 Orange.  

Fernández Lobbe has played 51 times for Toulon so far and previously played 46 times for the Sale Sharks in England. He has captained both teams and, now aged 30, is expected to take over the Pumas captancy from Felipe Contepomi and lead Argentina into the next World Cup. Having earned 43 caps since making his debut vs Uruguay in 2004. Santiago Phelan and Pumas fans are eager to see him return and be in good fitness ahead of The Rugby Championship, where he should earn his 50th cap. 

Amlin Challenge Cup Quarter Finals Wrap

Stade Français 22-17 Exeter
Exeter, who look likely to be playing in the Heineken Cup next season, really gave a sleepy Stade Français a large fright at the Stade Charlety. They dominated most of the match, but failed to ever take a big lead on the scoreboard, and late on failed to take their chances with kicks, got some bad luck with some Stade ruck infringements going unseen and the lack of a camera at the right angle for a probable try whcih saw it disallowed meant Stade could score late on with a try from Paul Williams set up by some Julien Dupuy brilliance to take the match.

Ignacio Mieres making a break against Stade Français

This game also saw an interesting match up between two Pumas contenders for the number 10 shirt Felipe Contepomi and Ignacio Mieres. But both had mixed matches. Contepomi was less prominent in the match but stupidly sin binned after reacting to a borderline foul tackle and what looked like taunting by the Exeter hooker Chris Whitehead, but ultimately it was his chip kick to set up Djibril Camara's well finished try  that was crucial to the result.

Mieres on the otherhand, was better than Contepomi throughout the match, but failed to make a difference where it counts on the scoreboard. It was his sensational 40 metre break which set up Exeter disallowed try which was probably a try in the first half, and in the second half he quite simply bottled two opportunities to secure the match with a medium difficulty conversion and very easy drop goal miss, although it could be argued Stade were offside for the charge down. He will be gutted to have missed the chance to knock out the team which massively underused him and preferred to pick Lionel Beauxis on his one man mission to whack the leather of all rugby balls.

It will be interesting to see who is chosen for the Pumas 10 shirt as there are good arguments for all of Hernández, Contepomi and Mieres to start there for the Pumas later this year.

As a sidenote Stade Français continue to get some very poor crowds at the Stade Charlety, whilst they seem to always sell out the Stade de France for matches and played in front of a packed crowd in Mans two weeks ago their attendances at just average home matches has been dismal, only 4,693 turned up to this match.

Toulon 37-8 Harlequins
Whilst the first match had a scoreline which didn't reflect the match, the second certainly did as Toulon thumped the English leaders Harlequins which extends their unbeaten run at the Stade Mayol to 13 matches. Toulon were dominant in all areas of the pitch and just scored from any penalty conceded by Quins and added tries towards the end to sweeten the scoreline for them. Notably Steffon Armitage was outstanding in this match and must be working towards an England recall as a specialist number 7, a place he has never really been given a fair run before.

Harlequins had two Argentines playing, starting was Tomás Vallejos and Benjamín Urdapilleta off the bench, neither were particularly prominent in this match.

Wasps 23-26 Biarritz
This was a match that was Biarritz's to lose and they almost did, they had a dominating pack and created two excellent try opportunities in the first half only for Iain Balshaw to wreck them, nevertheless they were led 23-9 in the second half with a try from Blashaw and South African prop Eugene van Staden. But Wasps scored tow tries in three minutes to level the scores. After another ruined easy try opportunity by Florian Faure this time, the Basque side eventually went through thanks to the trusty calmness of Dimitri Yachvili's boot.

Two Argentines were in the Biarritz team, Eusébio Guiñazu started at hooker and had a mixed day with one or two poor lineout throws, whilst Francisco Gómez Kodela came off the bench in the second half.

Brive 15-11 Scarlets
This was Brive's second string side, but it managed to defeat the Scarlets first choice side at home thanks mainly to a couple of factors. Brive dominated the Scarlets scrum and it is thanks to that Brive got most of the territory and their points from.

Whilst the Scarlets malfunctioned badly at the scrum, they also malfunctioned at the lineout with Matthew Rees who has been having a very poor season losing the first four or five lineouts. The Scarlets much talked about backs didn't get into the match. If the Scarlets want to compete at Heineken Cup level they will simply have to buy a better front five as their numbers one to five simply aren't good enough for Heineken Cup level rugby. And Brive proved that a worse team on paper, can beat a better team when the set pieces are so dominant.

Out of interest, France may want to keep an eye on the 19 year old loosehead prop Jefferson Poirot who on his first start for Brive destroyed the Scarlets tighthead, who was destroyed even more when Davit Khinchagishvili came on.

One Argentine, scrum half Agustín Figuerola played in this match coming off the bench late on for Brive.

Semi Final draw:
Toulon v Stade Français
Biarritz v Brive

The semi finals are an all French affair, and look very easy to predict, with the home teams having a massive advantage in each match, it would be a huge surprise not to see a Toulon against Biarritz final at the Stoop.

Final to be played at the Twickenham Stoop

Leonardo Senatore returns for Toulon

Leonardo Senatore

Leonardo Senatore will return to Toulon´s lineup for Saturday´s match vs Brive at the Stade Amédée-Domenech. He announced his delight at returning for the third placed Top 14 Orange club on twitter and hopes to face-off against his Pumas teammate, Agustín Figuerola. The Argentine backrower has been on the sidelines for Toulon due to the return of captain, Joe van Niekerk from injury. His match vs Brive has been rumoured, in French sources, as being his last due to the complettion of the rehabilitation process of Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe who has been on the sidelines all season after seriously injurying his knee vs Scotland in September.

Toulon will not be resigning Senatore for next season and the Pumas backrower´s contract as a meical joker could come to an end following this weekends match vs Brive. Should this, indeed, be Senatore´s final match then he will be flown to South Africa to link up with Los Pampas XV. Despite not being of the same callibre, more game time in the Vodacom Cup would be to the advantage of Senatore and Los Pumas as the backrower is a certainty to feature in the June internationals vs Italy and France.

The Rugby Championship Players to Watch - Leonardo Senatore

It is not often that a player can break clear from the back of a scrum to get passed two All Blacks backrowers,  let alone the pair of captain Richie McCaw and Crusaders teammate Kieran Read but this is what happened to put the name of Leonardo Senatore on the lips of commentators world wide in the World Cup Quarter Final clash at Eden Park last year. Senatore´s run set up the first try of the Quarter Final, and one of the best tries from the knock-out stages of the tournament. It also sent a reminder to the world of the force of Argentine rugby. When Felipe Contepomi slotted the conversion of the try scored by Julio Farías, the tournament favorites were behind on the scoreboard and the crowd was silenced - for the first time in the tournament the All Blacks had a real game on their hands. 

Senatore being tackled vs Georgia

The story of Senatore´s beautiful breakout run is more remarkable than just because of who the opposition were. Senatore had not been groomed as a player likely to feature at Rugby World Cup 2011. He had been a product of the post 2007 era of rebuilding but had been unable to secure a place in the team, or greater squad for Argentina´s home internationals in June and European tours in November from 2008-2010. He made his international debut in May 2008 vs Uruguay and played his second test vs Chile in November of the same year. His next test would come almost three years latter, vs Georgia in Palmerston North for Argentina´s final pool match of the World Cup. One week latter he was starting a World Cup Quarter Final. 

Playing for Los Pampas XV

His selection for Los Pumas in 2011 came as a result of his good form for Los Jaguares in the years from 2008-2011 and his form in the Vodacom Cup winning Los Pampas XV in 2011. Argentina had its share of injuries during this period but Senatore was never the player to get the call up for Los Pumas. Instead it was Alejandro Abadie, Alejandro Campos, Genario Fessia, Alvaro Galindo and Tomás Leonardi joining Juan Manuel Leguizamón and Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe in the backrow from 2008-2010. Despite having been a key player for Los Jaguares it was the 2011 Vodacom Cup that saw his rise to be a favored Pumas backrow option. When Santiago Phelan named Senatore in his World Cup squad it was evident that he was picked specifically as cover for Fernández Lobbe. The inital squad featured six backrowers - Campos, Farías, Fernández Lobbe, Galindo, Leguizamón and Senatore. Two were selected per position with Campos and Farías for 6, Galindo and Leguizamón for 7 and Fernández Lobbe and Senatore for 8. When Fernández Lobbe left the field vs Scotland with a serious knee injury, Senatore´s chance had come. Or had it? Argentina were in a battle to stay in the World Cup and Senatore was on the sidelines watching. Following the try of the World Cup, Senatore would get his chance one week latter. He started vs Georgia and following Argentina´s win the team went on to face New Zealand with Senatore picked at the base of the scrum. 

Toulon signing

Several weeks latter, Senatore was on a plane to France and in talks to play as a medical joker replacement for Fernández Lobbe at Toulon. Upon his arrival, Senatore quickly found his way into Toulon teamsheets and had a good first half in the current French season. Since the return of Joe van Niekerk from injury things have changed for Senatore however, and the club is set to stick to the temporary status of his medical joker contract. Whether he stays in Europe or returns to Argentina is unknown but what is certain is that he was able to have a successful stint with Toulon and did score a good try in the process. Should he return to Argentina he will certainly be signed on a permanent contract as one of the UAR Senior´s. His international future is also not in question with Senatore certain to play for his country in 2012 and likely to be in the starting XV. He could well force an adjustment to the Pumas backrow with Fernández Lobbe moving to 6. 

Week One: Juan Manuel Leguizamón

Week Two: Lucas González Amorosino

Week Three: Marcelo Bosch

Week Four: Agustín Creevy

Week Five: Juan Martín Hernández 
Week Six: Martín Bustos Moyano
Week Seven: Leonardo Senatore

Week Eight: Rodrigo Roncero