10 days ago, when Faustino Sánchez Valarolo packed his bag to travel to Buenos Aires to the national rally with Los Pumitas, knowing that he would not return to Córdoba before traveling to Australia to play the Rugby Championship M20, carefully kept a couple of objects that will allow him to feel a little closer to Córdoba during the three months that he will be on tour with the Argentine youth team. A t-shirt and a flag from Palermo Bajo, the club that formed him as a player, will accompany him throughout the trip.
At 19 years old, “Chachi” fulfills his second season in Dogos XV and is part of the albiceleste squad that will play the first edition of a new Rugby Championship M20. Once the tournament in Australia ends, he will travel to South Africa to play his second World Cup with Los Pumitas. But the center prefers to go step by step and not get ahead of itself along the way. “The idea is to think about the day to day and be one hundred percent focused on ourselves and what is coming,” he told The voice before starting the tour that begins in Aussie lands.
The Pumitas, with five other players trained in Córdoba rugby, They will debut in the Rugby Championship M20 in the early hours of Thursday, May 2. The premiere will be against Australia, starting at 6 in Argentina, at the Sunshine Coast Stadium, a stadium with capacity for 10,000 spectators in Queensland. Afterwards, the albiceleste team will face New Zealand (on Tuesday the 7th, from 4 a.m.) and will close on Sunday the 12th, from 0:30 a.m., against South Africa.
Regarding the rivals, the medalist with Los Pumitas 7s at the Rosario 2022 South American Youth Games explained; “They are powers; We know that they are very strong teams, each one with their own style of play. They are different litters and over the years the schools change; We will meet at the moment with the approach of each rival and we will try to give the best version of ourselves. Compete and live up to it.”
This 2024 will be the first edition of a tournament that, more than a decade ago, incorporated The Pumas to the three powers of the Southern Hemisphere. The objective is to give developing players a feel and competition. “The truth is that it is great for us, for our preparation, to have more competitions, also to continue filming at a global level,” said the back of Dogos XV.
And he assured that expectations are high. “They are good, tall, there is a good team, we prepared very, very well and we are going to try to have a great tournament,” he indicated.
Of the six players from Córdoba that make up the Los Pumitas squad, two are part of the Córdoba franchise (Sánchez Valarolo and the captain of the national team Efraín Elías) and one was part of Dogos XV last season (Valentín Soler). Regarding the importance of having a competition like the Super Rugby Americas, the Palermo Bajo center said: “I believe it is a very important tool in terms of the physical and technical preparation of the players. We arrived with a different rhythm of play, with a different preparation and with a different knowledge of what professional rugby is.”
And he continued: “Let’s say that a little more compared to what we were going to face in this tournament. “It seems to me that it is great to continue adding international experience.”
And in the sum of experience, “Chachi” also continues to accumulate minutes on the court, he continues to grow in his game. After having been part of the squad that won the gold medal at the South American Youth Games, in Rosario, in 2022, Sánchez Valarolo had his first foray into the Super Rugby Americas with a Dogos XV team that reached the final of the tournament. He played the M20 World Cup in the middle of the year and was consolidated for the 2024 season. “I am very, very happy,” he said in reference to his present and stated: “I come with another shoot as well. With more minutes and I’m enjoying it and learning day by day. Expectations for the World Cup are also high. “We want to have a great tournament.”
The M20 World Cup will be played between June 29 and July 19 in South Africa (in Cape Town and Western Cape). The Argentine team will face South Africa, England and Fiji in Zone C. In the 2023 World Cup, the national youth team finished in ninth place.
