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Argentina star excluded from Pumas training camp after testing positive for COVID-19

(Photo by Amilcar Orfali/Getty Images)

Argentina loose forward Javier Ortega Desio has been excluded from the national side’s Rugby Championship training squad after testing positive for COVID-19.

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The Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) confirmed the news on Sunday, two weeks after the 57-test international was named in a 46-man Los Pumas squad to prepare for the Rugby Championship set to be staged in New Zealand later this year.

The UAR, however, confirmed that Desio never linked up with the locally-based training group, which assembled in Buenos Aires on August 13.

“The player never trained at Casa Pumas because he was fulfilling mandatory isolation,” the national governing body said, as per Reuters.

“In the days prior to the start of training he had presented symptoms such as fever and general malaise, which later confirmed the presence of the coronavirus.”

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The absence of the 30-year-old Jaguares star will be a blow to head coach Mario Ledesma’s preparations for the SANZAAR tournament, which is expected to be hosted solely in New Zealand between November and December.

Coronavirus-enforced travel restrictions have prevented the the annual competition from being held on a home-and-away basis across New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina, as is normally the case.

New Zealand’s effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic has placed it as the leading candidate of the four nations to hold the tournament, but a recent outbreak in Auckland has jeopardised those plans.

Similarly, the highly-anticipated North vs South clash has also come under scrutiny after the New Zealand Government announced an extension to Auckland’s lockdown until the end of this week.

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Argentina, meanwhile, has recorded a total of 342,000 COVID-19 cases, with the government enforcing strict social distancing measures.

Los Pumas will resume training in the nation’s capital on Monday, but will be forced to undergo tests for the virus at the beginning of the week.

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AM 39 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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