Exeter sign Argentina international to cover injury crisis
Exeter Chiefs have moved to avoid an injury crisis by signing Argentinian prop Enrique Pieretto until the end of the season.
With the Chiefs having lost tightheads Tomas Francis and Greg Holmes to injury, the 24-year-old has been brought in by Director of Rugby, Rob Baxter, to ensure the club are not left lacking in the position.
Francis has been out of action since suffering a serious shoulder injury in Wales' World Cup semi-final defeat to South Africa, and is not expected to be available for selection for up to four months.
Holmes will also be sidelined for the foreseeable future having sustained an Achilles injury in Exeter’s Premiership Rugby Cup game at Leicester Tigers in September. The Chiefs do not expect to have him back on the pitch until early 2020.
Baxter says that the arrival is Pieretto is a sensible move for the club.
The prop, who has been capped 24 times by Los Pumas, was already in England having featured for the Barbarians on Saturday.
“After two or three scans it became clear that Tom needs an operation to repair the shoulder injury he picked up with Wales at the World Cup,” said Baxter. “It’s not great news for us, but at least we know where we stand now.
“We’ve therefore moved pretty quickly not just because we’ve lost Tom, but also Greg’s Achilles has proved more problematic than we first thought. Again, he’s going to be out for two or three months, so we felt it was the right thing to do to strengthen ourselves at tight-head.
“That doesn’t mean we are not going to continue to develop guys like Marcus Street or Alfie Petch, but we don’t want to leave ourselves in a situation where another injury could leave us really stretched.
“Therefore, we looked on the marked and, as things happen, Enrique is over here playing for the Barbarians, he’s here, he’s ready to go, he’s played at the World Cup and with the Jaguares, and it just works for us to get him involved with the squad.
“We’ve been able to have a good look at a number of his games, both at club level and international level, and at 24 years of age, he’s looks a good tight-head. That said, we still feel we can work on him and get even more out of his game, which is hugely exciting.”
Exeter currently sit fifth in the Premiership table, having won two of their opening four games.
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What’s new its a common occurrence, just the journos out there expecting a negative spin. The outcome will be beneficial to jordie and Leinster. The home grown lads hav got some experience to step up to and be more competitive, that or spend the 6 months keeping the bench warm.
Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
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