{"id":470181,"date":"2026-02-10T08:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T08:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/470181\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T08:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T08:08:14","slug":"super-rugby-americas-2026-season-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/470181\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Rugby Americas 2026 – Season Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Super Rugby Americas (SRA) 2026 season runs from February 20 to June 19. It gives people interested in South American Rugby plenty to follow over a sustained period of time. The competition features teams from three countries that will compete at Rugby World Cup 2027 and two others who were within range of qualifying.<\/p>\n

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\"\"SUPER RUGBY AMERICAS 2026 \u2013 TEAMS<\/p>\n

SRA 2026 will be the sixth season of the South American professional league. Changes from 2025 see the arrival of a new franchise from Argentina: Los Capibaras. The Rosario-based side is the fourth from Argentina which means Argentine teams account for 50% of the franchises for the first-time.<\/p>\n

Argentina\u2019s four teams are spread across the country. Former champions Los Dogos represent C\u00f3rdoba, 2025 rookies Los Tarucas play in Tucum\u00e1n and former finalists Los Pampas are the Buenos Aires side.<\/p>\n

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\"\"SUPER RUGBY AMERICAS 2026 \u2013 FORMAT<\/p>\n

SRA 2026 will kick-off with Dogos vs Cobras and Tarucas vs Selknam on Friday, February 20 and will conclude with the Grand Final on Friday, June 19. The season will involve a total of 59 matches. The matches will be broadcast by ESPN and Disney + in Latin America.<\/p>\n

The will be fourteen rounds of regular season matches. The top four teams, based on competition points, will advance to the Semi Finals. They will take place on June 12, one week before the final.<\/p>\n

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\"\"SUPER RUGBY AMERICAS 2026 \u2013 SUCCESS IN MOTION<\/p>\n

The success of SRA can be measured in a number of ways. Three instances are as follows. First, thirteen players signed contracts in Europe<\/a> for the ongoing season. Second, 82% of Chile\u2019s roster which qualified for Rugby World Cup 2027 played for Selknam in SRA 2025. Third, four players helped Los Pumas defeat the British & Irish Lions<\/a> in June.<\/p>\n

SRA 2026 will be another season to help test teams prepare for the international season. Chile and Uruguay will compete in the Nations Cup<\/a> while Argentina will play in the Nations Championship<\/a>. The trio will all compete at Rugby World Cup 2027, meaning 2026 is vital preparation for teams, players and staff.<\/p>\n

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\"\"SRA 2026 \u2013 PLAYERS TO WATCH<\/p>\n

Rugby players, administrators and supporters from many countries ought to be paying attention to SRA 2026. Put simply, past SRA seasons have produced test players. Those involved in Pools A, B and are all cases in point. Chile will compete in Pool A against Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand<\/a>. Argentina are in Pool C against Canada, Fiji and Spain<\/a> while Uruguay face Ireland, Portugal and Scotland in Pool D<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Selknam is a vital part of Chile\u2019s contemporary depth radar chart<\/a>. Well over half of the projected Los C\u00f3ndores line-up play their rugby for Selknam in SRA. Similarly, Uruguay\u2019s projected starting line-up and replacements for Rugby World Cup 2027 are Pe\u00f1arol names<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Argentina is different; in fact, all players listed in depth chart as making the projected teams vs Fiji and Canada play their rugby abroad.<\/a> However, a careful look at who they are demonstrates that many are former SRA players, including in 2025. This is an indication that further Pumas may result from SRA 2026.<\/p>\n

Key players to watch can be listed in a range of positions and from all eight SRA teams. Pe\u00f1arol notably welcome back flanker and jackal expert, Manuel Ardao from Major League Rugby (MLR). He and RWC 2023 teammates Felipe Aliaga, Manuel Diana and Lucas Bianchi are all notable Uruguayan forwards.<\/p>\n

Selknam have Rodrigo Fern\u00e1ndez and Lucas Berti back in Chile from Italy and France respectively. Nicol\u00e1s Saab had a superb season in 2025, including for Chile. He scored excellent tries against reputable opponents including Samoa<\/a> and Italy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Os Cobras\u2018 roster came with a heavy contingent of South Africans<\/a> as well as some Argentines. A lot of attention was placed on the signing of former Olympic Medalist, Rosko Specman. His contributions remain to be seen and he notably turns 37 during the SRA season. \u00a0His countryman and the much younger Tasriq Mynhardt is a name to watch.<\/p>\n

Front-rower Nicol\u00e1s Toth is player to watch in Yacare colors. The Argentine front-rower is back in South America from the Pro D2. Argentine players have been a key ingredient as to how the Paraguayan side have been competitive in past editions. Scrum-half Juan Cruz Strada was excellent in 2025 and remains a player to watch.<\/p>\n

Newcomers Los Capibaras have recruited many players from rival SRA teams. This has come in the form of players coming home in that they are now playing SRA for the team representing their home region in Argentina. Of them, fly half Juan Bautista Baronio and center Bruno Heit are two players to watch. Others include Mart\u00edn Vaca who is back from MLR and Enzo Avaca who is back in Argentina from the United Rugby Championship (URC).<\/p>\n

Los Tarucas have lost starting players, most notably backs to European clubs. On the flip side, player recruitment has been headlined by Mat\u00edas Orlando back from MLR to be captain. Fellow center Pedro Coll is another new player for the season. He was a stand-out performer for Los Pumitas at the 2025 World Rugby u20 Championship<\/a>. Considering veteran Pumas center Mat\u00edas Moroni turns 35 in March, the 20-year-old Coll is a young player to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n

Los Pampas have also lost names to Europe and also to SRA rival teams. However, the club has also retained Puma Santiago Pernas and signed veteran winger Santiago Cordero. Additional recruitment of note is centered on obtaining Los Pumas 7\u2019s players. Alejo Lavay\u00e9n, Agust\u00edn Fraga and Tob\u00edas Wade are all players to watch.<\/p>\n

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\"\"SUPER RUGBY AMERICAS 2026 \u2013 FIXTURES<\/p>\n

\"\"Image: SRA<\/p>\n

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\"\"SUPER RUGBY AMERICAS 2026 \u2013 FIXTURES<\/p>\n

\"\"Image: SRA
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\n\"\"Image: SRA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Super Rugby Americas (SRA) 2026 season runs from February 20 to June 19. It gives people interested…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,234606,106308,85,240178,219276],"class_list":["post-470181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-world-cup-men","tag-sevens","tag-sports","tag-sudamerica-rugby","tag-super-rugby-americas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470181","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=470181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}