Canada captain fired up for Rugby World Cup clash with Pumas enforcer

Pablo Matera overtook Agustin Creevy as the most-capped Puma of all time when Argentina played England in July 2025. Matera is highly rated by fans around the world, while other backrowers are eager to challenge themselves against one of the best loose forwards in the game.

Argentina’s group-stage opponents at Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 were revealed on Wednesday, drawn in Pool C along with Fiji, Spain and Canada. For Canada captain Lucas Rumball, the chance to potentially Matera and Los Pumas poses “an exciting challenge.”

Matera won a Super Rugby title with the Crusaders but more recently has been playing in Japan for Mie Honda Heat. At international level, the 32-year-old made 13 appearances for Los Pumas in 2025, including a start at blindside flanker against the British & Irish Lions in Dublin.

Los Puma claimed a famous win against the Lions at the Aviva Stadium, before defeating the All Blacks and Wallabies during The Rugby Championship. Matera scored a try against Scotland in November, as Argentina completed a memorable comeback at Murrayfield.

“Probably [Pablo] Matera. He’s so fun to watch. They’re a fun team, they play from anywhere. That game against Scotland when they were down by 21 and they came back, you’d count most teams out with that kind of scoreline,” Rumball, who plays for Major League Rugby side the Chicago Hounds, told reporters.

“Their whole team’s great but Matera would be a great guy to play against, he’s always someone you watch in these tier one fixtures and he’s always going well. It’ll be an exciting challenge, with physical and fast rugby and it’ll be good to measure ourselves against that.”

Canada are the lowest-ranked qualifier for Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027, as they occupy 25^th spot on the World Rugby rankings. This will be Canada’s first men’s World Cup since the 2019 event in Japan, failing to qualify for the showpiece tournament in France four years later.

Fiji and Argentina will meet in the international rugby arena for the first time in 20 years when they clash in Pool C. Spain pose a unique challenge as well, having lost to the Flying Fijians by less than 10 points last month in Malaga.

“I think it’s a good pool. It’s full of different sorts of challenges. Every team wants to play. So, all those teams are running rugby teams and that’s going to be a great experience for us,” coach Steve Meehan explained this week.

“Some of the rugby that Argentina played in the middle of this year was outstanding especially in some of their attacking play. We saw first-hand what Fiji are capable of over the last few years, and we know that Spain can attack from deep in their own territory as well.”

“We need to try and build some depth. If you have a look at what’s happened with the age groups of our players, we have a lot of experienced players like Lucas, and players just finishing at university,” he added later.

“There’s a middle core off the back of the COVID years, where we suffered from a lack of fixtures, and didn’t feel they had that opportunity and so went elsewhere. So, we’ll have 45 to 50 players knocking on the door and doing as well as they can to get on that plane.”