Why Marcos Moneta travelled to the Austrian Alps before new SVNS season

In many CBDs or gated communities, Marcos Moneta at full speed would be getting a ticket. Tested at a maximum speed of 40.1 kilometres per hour, the Pumas 7s speedster has ensured no stone is left unturned, pairing his natural ability with a preparation to match it.

A certain Usain Bolt tested a maximum speed of 44.72 km/h and Moneta explains that different ways of measuring him at his best have read 38.9 km/h (Catapult), 39.4 km/h (Kinexson) but given that his first recorded speed test was done with Statsports at 36.8 km/h in 2019, those 40.1km/h in that measurement tool allow him to showcase his growth.

Seeing the 2021 World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year take off is one of the real joys of the HSBC SVNS and fans instantly anticipate that something is about to happen. Ball in hand and with a minimum of space to jiggle, the amount of damage the 26-year-old can make on the opposition is huge. His strike rate is probably the highest amongst the current crop of players.

He was first spotted at 17 as a potential sevens player when Argentina were preparing to win Gold at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018, he has since put all of his body and mind to the cause.

In a team that included future Pumas 7s teammate Matteo Graziano and fully-capped Pumas Lucio Cinti, Ignacio Mendy, the team captain Juan Martín González and Bautista Pedemonte, Moneta was then raw speed and had the ability to score from a distance.

From an early age, first playing for San Andrés, the FP club of St. Andrew’s Scots School in the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires, he was always keen on preparation. As a side note, all those hand signals he does after scoring a try – and he’s scored over 200 on the SVNS Series, are for his club, which he follows every weekend he is at home.

“Maybe, initially, the gym was more about being bigger, for aesthetics,” he opens in conversation with RugbyPass. “But from the U15s, 16s, 17s, I understood that fitness played a huge role.”

Heading into the Youth Olympics, “I became more obsessed with strength, speed and explosiveness.”

Being very tidy in his everyday life certainly helped him. A good student at school, he later managed a Bachelor in Business Administration in the difficult Universidad de San Andrés while also being a sevens international. His rugby preparation was not a burden. “In fact, I enjoy it,” he says. “I like to train, I like to move.”

Stamina, strength, power, speed are crucial as are the rugby skills which he has also mastered.

“My X-factor was speed; I’ve always paid a lot of attention to it, but it is not necessarily the main focus of my preparation.”

Since making his Pumas 7s debut in 2019, he has become an integral part of Santiago Gómez Cora’s team. He leads by example and is constantly trying to get better.

He lives by what he does. “I put a lot of time and effort in recovery and rest. Boots, sauna, cryotherapy, a lot of movement, mobility and flexibility are crucial. It adds to your lifespan as a high-performance sportsman. It will ensure you are less injury-prone, and it will allow you to perform day to day.”

Another sidebar: Moneta has never had major muscle injuries. His biggest injury was in Hong Kong in 2024, when he broke a bone in his leg. He was back in record time to play in the Olympic Games thanks to his commitment to recovery.

Moneta has added to his daily routine the use of glasses that block blue light to ensure better rest and deeper sleep. “I try to spend nine hours in bed, which I control with an app.”

This ambition to be better has taken him for a second consecutive year to Fuschel am See, a small community in the Austrian Alps, half an hour’s drive from Salzburg. There, one of Moneta’s personal sponsors, Red Bull, have their Athletic Performance Centre.

“An incredible experience in a wonderful location,” he’ll say with a glow in his voice.”

Siya Kolisi and Ashwin Willemse, two Springboks that have also attended the APC. The Newcastle Red Bulls have also been there this year, as have representatives of every different sport under the energy drink’s umbrella.

Moneta flew to Austria for a week in August where he underwent a series of tests and exams that would “give me and the team staff a clear picture of where I am.”

This being his second visit, he already knew what to expect and without putting aside his training routine, underwent a busy, yet very positive, week.

“Having been invited to India to play in the Premier 7s, I chose to rest and recover after a long season. And during our preseason, we fitted the trip.”

Working with next-generation machinery and highly experienced staff, at the end of the five days of testing, he was given a full report of strength and power, aerobic and anaerobic stats, general health information (blood, lungs, kidney), skeleton health, information for the physios, nutrition goals and even had mental health sessions.

“They compared my results with average results from rugby players, sprinters and NFL players. Upper body, it went very well. Lower body, on average. And my speed was also above the average.”

Happily, he’ll say: “all my stats were better than a year ago.”

They did find a minor difference between the right and the left leg which Moneta is already working on. “Leg exercises I’ll do a few more times on the left leg. The Pumas 7s staff have already analyzed the results and are also in touch with the APC. It has all been very positive.”

Now a vlogger and a presenter, Moneta showed his trip on the YouTube channel he shares with Graziano (https://www.youtube.com/@MoneYLaGarza). “We are enjoying ourselves. It gives us something to do outside of rugby and this season, finding the right moment, we’ll be showing our travels with the sevens team.”

He also hosts a weekly show on Disney+ focused on rugby.

A full-strength Pumas 7s won the Odesur 7s in September, a multi-sport event against regional opposition. They showed they will again be a menace for the top sevens sides.

The goal for 2027 is clear. “Qualify for Los Angeles 2028. Hopefully directly from the SVNS Series. Last season we finished fifth, but could have been first. After a year together, the squad is stronger now.”

Paris 2024 still hurts. The team probably reached its peak earlier than expected. “We were candidates; France also had ambitions and they won the Gold Medal so they were a very good team. It still stings. In saying that, we were not candidates in Tokyo and we won a medal. Sports is not always fair.”

His goal is, 100%, that of the team. “We only speak about qualifying. First things first.”

After LA28? “I am not planning for after the Games,” he’ll say, bluntly.