Ignacio Calles

He started at flanker, moved to hooker, ended up a loosehead prop, and lost a year of his career to a ruptured Achilles.

Ignacio Calles was picked for Argentina’s 2023 Rugby Championship squad and to prepare for that year’s World Cup. In July he ruptured an Achilles tendon. He did not play again until 7 September 2024, more than a year later, against Clermont in the opening round of the Top 14.

He is a loosehead prop at Bayonne, 1.87m and 116kg.

Born in Tandil, he started at Los Cardos at four years old, in the back row. The coaches moved him to hooker and then to loosehead as he grew. He left for Liceo Naval in Buenos Aires in 2013 and played URBA senior rugby from 2015.

Pau brought him to France in 2016 on an academy contract, on the recommendation of Andrés Bordoy, their Argentine scrum coach. He spent eighteen months exclusively in the espoirs before his first senior appearance, off the bench for Jamie Mackintosh against Zebre in January 2018.

He then spent nine years at the club, mostly fighting for minutes. Mackintosh’s and Thomas Domingo’s departures opened the door in 2019-20 before knee and back injuries closed it again. In 2020-21 his scrummaging made him a genuine squad man, though he still only managed fourteen appearances. Two full seasons followed, sharing the shirt with Siegfried Fisi’ihoi and Rémi Sénéca. Then the Achilles cost him all but two matches of 2023-24.

Bayonne signed him in January 2025 on three years, from 2025-26.

Argentina capped him on 13 November 2021 against Italy, off the bench for Thomas Gallo. Two junior world championships, in 2014 and 2015, came long before it.

A scrummaging loosehead who is also mobile in open play, which is why Pau kept extending him through the injuries. Whether Bayonne get three clean years is the whole question.