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Harlequins' first impressions of sevens superstar Rodrigo Isgro

Rodrigo Isgro of Argentina is tackled by Manie Libbok of South Africa during the Rugby Championship 2024 match between South Africa Springboks and Argentina Pumas at Mbombela Stadium on September 28, 2024 in Nelspruit, South Africa. (Photo by Gaspafotos/MB Media/Getty Images)

Summer signing Rodrigo Isgro has begun life as a Harlequin this week, linking up with his new team two days after starting on the wing for Argentina against South Africa in the final round of The Rugby Championship on Saturday.

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The reigning World Rugby men’s sevens player of the year has enjoyed a jam-packed summer in both the seven-man format and the 15-man format.

After helping Los Pumas Sevens win the HSBC SVNS league title, losing to France in the Grand Final in Madrid, the 25-year-old was part of Argentina’s Olympic campaign in Paris, again losing to eventual champions France in the quarter-finals, before switching to 15s for The Rugby Championship, where his sole appearance came in the loss to the Springboks in Mbombela.

In the midst of a whirlwind couple of months, the Argentine signed for Quins in September, who he linked up with on Monday, with head coach Danny Wilson saying his debut is imminent.

Though Isgro’s first couple of days have been spent in the gym, with no training on the field, Wilson has been impressed by what he has seen, describing his new recruit as a “big winger”.

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Weighing in at 100kg, Isgro promises to be quite an asset for Quins on the wing, with speed to match his robust frame.

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“He joined us yesterday, and we welcomed him,” Wilson said this week. “He trained a little bit today, not on field but gym and bits and pieces and he’s getting settled, which is great.

“He’s a big winger. He’s a big lad. Looking forward to getting him on the field.”

Isgro’s arrival has come at an ideal time for Quins, who have seen their back-three stocks depleted recently. With vice-captain Cadan Murley and Tyrone Green already injured heading into the season, the London outfit lost rising star Cassius Cleaves to a hamstring injury in the victory over Newcastle Falcons, with Leigh Halfpenny additionally emerging as an injury concern.

Though Friday’s Gallagher Premiership clash with champions Northampton Saints at Franklin’s Gardens may come too soon for Isgro to make his debut, Wilson said that he will play in the “coming weeks”.

Wilson said: “Our back three have picked up a number of bumps and injuries right now so it’s good timing and hopefully, we can get him out there in the coming weeks.”

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While injuries are an inevitability in professional rugby, the battle for the No 11, No 14 and the No 15 shirts will be an intriguing one should everyone return to full fitness.

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Watch the highly acclaimed five-part documentary Chasing the Sun 2, chronicling the journey of the Springboks as they strive to successfully defend the Rugby World Cup, free on RugbyPass TV (*unavailable in Africa)

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J
JW 59 minutes ago
Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

It is now 22 years since Michael Lewis published his groundbreaking treatise on winning against the odds

I’ve never bothered looking at it, though I have seen a move with Clint as a scout/producer. I’ve always just figured it was basic stuff for the age of statistics, is that right?

Following the Moneyball credo, the tailor has to cut his cloth to the material available

This is actually a great example of what I’m thinking of. This concept has abosolutely nothing to do with Moneyball, it is simple being able to realise how skillsets tie together and which ones are really revelant.


It sounds to me now like “moneyball” was just a necessity, it was like scienctest needing to come up with some random experiment to make all the other world scholars believe that Earth was round. The American sporting scene is very unique, I can totally imagine one of it’s problems is rich old owners not wanting to move with the times and understand how the game has changed. Some sort of mesiah was needed to convert the faithful.


While I’m at this point in the article I have to say, now the NRL is a sport were one would stand up and pay attention to the moneyball phenom. Like baseball, it’s a sport of hundreds of identical repetitions, and very easy to data point out.

the tailor has to cut his cloth to the material available and look to get ahead of an unfair game in the areas it has always been strong: predictive intelligence and rugby ‘smarts’

Actually while I’m still here, Opta Expected Points analysis is the one new tool I have found interesting in the age of data. Seen how the random plays out as either likely, or unlikely, in the data’s (and algorithms) has actually married very closely to how I saw a lot of contests pan out.


Engaging return article Nick. I wonder, how much of money ball is about strategy as apposed to picks, those young fella’s got ahead originally because they were picking players that played their way right? Often all you here about is in regards to players, quick phase ruck ball, one out or straight up, would be were I’d imagine the best gains are going to be for a data driven leap using an AI model of how to structure your phases. Then moving to tactically for each opposition.

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