The rise of women’s rugby in Argentina: Las Yaguaretes chase SVNS dream

The two sevens rugby teams in Argentina are the men’s side, Los Pumas 7s and Las Yaguaretés, the women’s team. The former are currently trailblazing the world of sevens, fresh of winning the last two HSBC SVNS tournaments in Perth and Vancouver.

Los Pumas 7s players are well-paid professionals and thanks to their exploits and the growth of the shortened version of the game, they are household names.

As for Las Yaguaretés, they’re amateurs. Most hold jobs and there are even mothers in the squad.

They face a different reality and whilst women’s rugby is growing, it faces an uphill battle to earn their place in the landscape. Perceptions are changing but most big, well-known rugby clubs still don’t want women’s rugby. Time is on the women’s game, as patience has proven.

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When Sofía González first fell in love with the game, there were only had four teams in the Buenos Aires league, only playing sevens. Nowadays, that number has multiplied by a factor of seven and continues to grow.

An international since turning 18, the way she started reflects what rugby used to be.

“I was around thirteen and my best friend Celeste took me to Gimnasia y Esgrima de Ituzaingó, across the street from where I lived. I knew nothing about rugby. Her mother Azucena played and I was soon invited to get involved even if until we were 18, we weren’t allowed to play officially.”

Uneasy about how to tell her late mother that she had gone to a rugby session, bloody knees that first night forced her to come clean. “I was very skinny and she was afraid that I could get injured, but she instantly said she supported me. I loved the complexity of the sport”

Nutrition was an issue at Sofía’s household, with González  the eighth of nine siblings. “Money was very, very tight and food scarce,” she recalls.

Rugby was instantly part of her life, although she could only play friendlies. In a tournament in Tucumán, she caught the eye of the then national coach. She was only 15!

Fast forward to age 18 and she reached the right age, she was instantly selected for the national team and offered the possibility of moving into the National Sports Centre. Although only 40 kilometres away from home, the living quarters at the CENARD offered her the possibility of eating correctly and the use of high-performance facilities.

“We didn’t even have money to pay a gym fee, let alone the right food.”

She would live there from 2014 to 2022 where “I grew as a player and a person. I would go back home to visit the family and get the clothes cleaned!”

As an Argentine representative, she got to travel, something unheard of in her family. Her first trip outside of Argentina was to Uruguay, but she then got to travel around South America multiple times, to Hong Kong (“ten times”), Europe, Canada and the USA, and Dubai.

Her family’s WhatsApp group explodes every time she is on the road. “Mom was very proud of my achievements and my siblings want pics of the plane, the hotel room, the cities I visit. Everything.”

Five brothers – two of which are policemen, and three sisters, two of them firewomen – are tight and all have a better life than growing up. Them, or her partner Joaquín, were keen on rugby until her involvement.

“My boyfriend and his family are all fans now!” she smiles.

Sofía has a lot to thank rugby. “It gave me the opportunity to study. I am five credits away from becoming a Phys Ed teacher and I am also studying Digital Marketing and Publicity.”

Rugby doesn’t pay the bills; whilst she gets a stipend from the National Sports Foundation, she also works for a friend that helps her with her timetables to fit training sessions and rugby trips.

Changes are coming, but not fast enough. “I get distressed knowing that I won’t be playing ten more years, and I won’t see the changes. I am very conscious that we are very different to Los Pumas or Los Pumas 7s. I don’t know when, but things will change.”

In the meantime, there aren’t even per diems when on tour.

“Comparing it to when I started, it is night and day; the structure for the women’s game has changed, it has grown and we are now considered at clubs. Whilst before we were chased out of the training fields, now we are given our spaces.”

Las Yaguaretés, as the Argentina women’s sevens side is called, are facing a new opportunity to reach the game’s elite through World Rugby’s HSBC Sevens Repechage. They came close last year, but not close enough.

A change in coach and a renewed confidence and commitment saw them win the South American 7s Tournament two years running, until then, owned by Brazil.

“Before, we didn’t know what we were capable of. With Nahuel García and his assistant Facundo Salas, we have excellent coaches that made us understand what we were capable of. They help us to be better as players and human beings.”

The cut-throat Challenger Series will see Argentina play Mexico and Thailand next Saturday at the Athlone Stadium, in Cape Town.

“We’ve done our research on the opposition but we’ll focus on our game. Our goal is to qualify for Crakow and then go to Los Angeles, where the four teams to play in next year’s HSBC SVNS will be decided.”

As Sofía says, “playing against Argentina must be a pain in the butt because of our attitude during the 14 minutes.”

That attitude has become a Los Pumas 7s’ trademark. They are totally different set-ups and for the women’s side, everything is much, much harder which gives them a great resilience.

“I have the utmost admiration for the boys and when I see them, I think ‘hopefully one day…’”

“They are a clear example that consistency, hunger, discipline and a process you can achieve what they’ve achieved. They understood how to work, had the tools, the competition and the support. All of that brings rewards.”

“I applaud them.”

Sofía is the best-known female Argentine rugby player. She has been around for more than a decade as the game has grown. There is still a lot of scope for growth and she is excited to push for this.

“In that sense, qualifying for the SVNS could be huge.”