Rodrigo Bruni

When Mario Ledesma picked his squad for the 2019 World Cup, Rodrigo Bruni had three caps and had not played a minute of that year’s Rugby Championship. Ledesma took him ahead of Facundo Isa, who had 30-odd.

Bruni is a back-rower at Bayonne, 1.87m and 109kg, comfortable at No. 8 or blindside.

He started at the amateur Uncas Rugby Club in Tandil, his home town, playing regional rugby. In 2014 he moved to Club San Luis in La Plata to get into the URBA competition and the Nacional de Clubes.

The Jaguares kept him in their wider squad through 2018 without using him, then gave him a Super Rugby debut against the Lions on 16 February 2019. He reached a Super Rugby final that year. When the franchise was cut from the competition in December 2020 he came to France, to Vannes in Pro D2.

Brive signed him on two years from 2022-23. It went badly: the Rugby Championship kept him away at the start of the season, then a foot injury, and he did not play for them until March 2023. Seven matches, and Brive went down. He left and Bayonne took him on two years.

He was capped off the bench against Ireland in Dublin on 10 November 2018 and started against Scotland a fortnight later. He started on 14 November 2020, when Argentina beat New Zealand for the first time in Parramatta. He played five matches at the 2023 World Cup, all as a replacement.

Twenty-six caps, fifteen starts.

A hard, low carrier and a reliable defender rather than a ball-player. In a Top 14 back row that already has Alexandre Fischer for the breakdown work, Bruni is the one who gets the ball over the gainline.