Sale Sharks programme - 2021
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anks of his local club and taking his<br />
first steps on the ladder to making<br />
rugby a career, Orlando explains: “I<br />
played throughout the age groups for<br />
Huirapuca, and then earned<br />
selection for Tucuman,<br />
which is my local<br />
provincial team.<br />
“That helped me get<br />
selected for Argentina<br />
Under-20s, and then<br />
eventually the full<br />
Argentina squad. My<br />
first professional<br />
contract came at the<br />
age of 21,<br />
which was basically playing for the<br />
Pumas and my home club, and it just<br />
took off from there when the<br />
Jaguares came around in 2015.<br />
By that stage the centre was already<br />
an established international, earning<br />
his Pumas debut in 2012 against<br />
Uruguay before playing his first toptier<br />
test against England the year<br />
after. Featuring in the 2019 Rugby<br />
World Cup, he was then a key part of<br />
the side which defeated New Zealand<br />
for the first time back in November<br />
2020.<br />
It has not all been roses for Orlando<br />
and Argentina in more recent times,<br />
however, with the Pumas enduring a<br />
disappointing <strong>2021</strong> Rugby<br />
Championship and autumn tour as a<br />
combination of quarantine, bubbles<br />
and poor results took a huge toll on<br />
all involved.<br />
“The international rugby with<br />
Argentina in the last couple of years<br />
has been really hard, mentally,” says<br />
Orlando.<br />
“We haven’t played any home games<br />
since before the pandemic, and the<br />
away games have meant some really<br />
long tours where we’ve been away<br />
from home for months at a time. Not<br />
just that, but every new country you<br />
go to you’re having to do another 14<br />
days of quarantine where you’re not<br />
allowed to leave your hotel room.<br />
“The whole bubble thing is just really<br />
difficult for the guys, like being in a<br />
Romanian hotel for two weeks, then<br />
an Australian hotel<br />
and the same again in New<br />
Zealand and South Africa.<br />
We couldn’t leave these hotels, and<br />
everyone had families at home that<br />
they hadn’t seen for months. It’s not<br />
an excuse for the results we’ve had,<br />
because we know we need to<br />
improve, but it has been a really hard<br />
time.<br />
“This summer was even worse for me<br />
because I went on tour for the Rugby<br />
Championship, but I was struggling to<br />
get over my groin injury. It meant I<br />
had to do all the hotel quarantine and<br />
everything else, but I didn’t even have<br />
the games to look forward to on a<br />
weekend.<br />
“I got the injury around March time,<br />
and I was playing through it. I was<br />
struggling to be fit, but in June I had a<br />
setback and it got to the point where I<br />
couldn’t run. I did rehab from there,<br />
missing the Pumas’ summer tour, and<br />
even though I went with them for the<br />
whole duration of the Rugby<br />
Championship I was never fit enough<br />
to play.<br />
“At the end of the tour I went home to<br />
Argentina to see a specialist, and now<br />
I’m back in Newcastle just desperate<br />
to play rugby again. All I can do is get<br />
myself fit, and from there hopefully<br />
the coaches will choose to pick me if<br />
it’s the best thing for the team.”<br />
The festive season is tough for<br />
sportsmen at the best of times with<br />
fixtures coming thick and fast while<br />
celebrations are going on all around,<br />
and for Orlando there is the added<br />
culture shock to factor in.<br />
www.newcastlefalcons.co.uk<br />
21
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