{"id":398438,"date":"2026-01-07T22:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T22:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/398438\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T22:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T22:29:08","slug":"chicago-hounds-sign-argentinian-hooker-flanker-hybrid-bekerman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/398438\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Hounds sign Argentinian hooker-flanker hybrid Bekerman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Chicago Hounds\u2019 2026 forward pack continues to take shape with the addition of former Miami <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/sharks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sharks<\/a> utility forward Tomas Bekerman.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old Argentine spent the 2025 season as a loose forward with Miami after a rookie campaign at hooker with the Dallas Jackals. Across both seasons, he tackled at just shy of 80 per cent and scored nine tries.<\/p>\n<p>Having operated in a reserve role for much of his first two seasons in the MLR, Bekerman will compete with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/jackson-zabierek\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jackson Zabierek<\/a> and fellow new Hounds recruit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/theo-fourie-1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Theo Fourie<\/a> for minutes in Chicago. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/dylan-fawsitt\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dylan Fawsitt<\/a> became the MLR\u2019s first-ever league centurion playing hooker for the Hounds in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The Hounds have been active with their forward pack recruitment ahead of 2026, extending <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/mason-flesch\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mason Flesch<\/a>, Mac Jones, and Lucas Rumball\u00a0while adding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/emmanuel-albert\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Emmanuel Albert<\/a> to their loose forward stocks.<\/p>\n<p>The Hounds travel to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/anthem-rugby-carolina\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anthem Rugby Carolina<\/a> on April 4 to begin the 2026 MLR season, before returning to Chicago to host <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/california-legion\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">California Legion<\/a> in their first home game on April 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Hounds\u2019 2026 forward pack continues to take shape with the addition of former Miami Sharks utility&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-398438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}