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Newcastle sign experienced Orlando ahead of their Premiership return
By Online Editors
Newcastle Falcons have announced the signing of Argentina centre Matias Orlando, a proven international at the peak of his powers. Capped 44 times, the 28-year-old last year helping Jaguares to the Super Rugby final before representing Los Pumas at the World Cup in Japan.
With Newcastle building a squad for their return to the Gallagher Premiership following an unbeaten 2019/20 campaign, Orlando will arrive in the first week of December on an 18-month deal.
Director of rugby Dean Richards said: “Matias has consistently shone at both international and Super Rugby levels for a number of years now. He possesses a huge amount of quality both in terms of his skillset and work ethic, and it’s a massive boost for us to be able to attract a player of his standing in the world game.”
Born in Tucuman and starting his junior rugby with the Hiuirapuca club, Orlando played for Argentina’s Pampas XV in South Africa’s Vodacom Cup competition before making his full international debut in 2012, going on to establish himself as a Test regular.
Standing at 6ft and weighing 95kgs (14 stone 10), he has spent the past four seasons in Super Rugby with the Buenos-Aires-based Jaguares, scoring twice in last year’s semi-final victory over the Brumbies as they secured safe passage to their first-ever final.
The midfielder scored 15 tries in total in his 59 Super Rugby appearances, adding to his five international tries. Richards added: “He certainly knows his way to the line. He reads the game well, has a step on him and brings other people into play, so it’s a tremendously exciting signing. I’m sure our supporters will really appreciate and enjoy what Matias brings to the table.”
Newcastle’s return to the top flight was confirmed in April, with the club sitting 18 points clear at the top of the Championship when the season was prematurely ended by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Falcons won all 22 of their matches last season across all competitions and will compete in the Gallagher Premiership when the 2020/21 season gets underway towards the end of the year.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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