{"id":59731,"date":"2025-08-11T10:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T10:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/59731\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T10:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T10:23:09","slug":"simon-benitez-cruz-completes-career-defining-move-to-newcastle-falcons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/59731\/","title":{"rendered":"Sim\u00f3n Ben\u00edtez Cruz Completes Career-Defining Move to Newcastle Falcons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sim\u00f3n Ben\u00edtez Cruz has completed a career-defining move from Argentina to continue his career in England. The Newcastle Falcons have signed the scrum-half from Super Rugby Americas (SRA) side Los Tarucas\u00a0on a two-year deal<\/a>. Newcastle will be Ben\u00edtez Cruz\u2019 first foreign professional club.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"PLAYER BACKGROUND<\/p>\n

Ben\u00edtez Cruz plays at scrum-half. His game is noted for his running ability with ball in hand. He is also an accurate passer and box-kicker as well as a reliable defender.<\/p>\n

He had a\u00a0breakout season for Los Tarucas in Super Rugby Americas 2025. Ben\u00edtez Cruz established himself as one of the leading scrum-halves in the league and was named MVP. It came with Los Pumas in search for more scrum-halves<\/a> following the decision of Lautaro Baz\u00e1n V\u00e9lez to focus on Rugby 7\u2019s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ben\u00edtez Cruz actually went from Los Pumas 7\u2019s to SRA. He played for Los Pampas in 2024 with ARN including him in the SRA All-Stars<\/a>. In 2025 he moved to newcomers, Los Tarucas. The scrum-half is a product of CUBA in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n

\"\"Cr\u00e9dito Foto: Pablo Oriz y Daniel Gollan \/ Gaspafotos \/ Super Rugby Am\u00e9ricas<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"LOS PUMAS DEBUT<\/p>\n

Ben\u00edtez Cruz was one of eight uncapped SRA players selected by Felipe Contepomi to prepare to face the British & Irish Lions<\/a>. \u00a0He was joined by Luciano Asevedo, Leonel Oviedo, Boris Wenger, Sim\u00f3n Ben\u00edtez Cruz, Agust\u00edn Moyano, Nicol\u00e1s Roger, Faustino S\u00e1nchez Valarolo and Santiago Pernas from SRA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joaqu\u00edn Moro was also included. He had made his test debut against Uruguay in July, 2024. Moro (Pampas) was a replacement against the British & Irish Lions as were Boris Wenger (Dogos), and Sim\u00f3n Ben\u00edtez Cruz (Tarucas). Wenger and Ben\u00edtez Cruz debuted for Los Pumas in the match though test caps were not awarded.<\/p>\n

Argentina fielded debutants against the British & Irish Lions. Bautista Bernasconi, Benjam\u00edn Grondona, and Benjam\u00edn Elizalde were also all on the roster as United Rugby Championship (URC) and English Premiership club players. Of them, Bernasconi received game time in the win in Dublin, Ireland.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

He first test cap was awarded in Argentina\u2019s next appearance. Los Pumas took on England at home in La Plata. While Sim\u00f3n Ben\u00edtez Cruz had been Argentina\u2019s replacement scrum-half for Gonzalo Garc\u00eda against the British & Irish Lions in Dublin, he was now the replacement for Gonzalo Bertranou against England<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ben\u00edtez Cruz earned his official first cap in La Plata. He was one of four debutants in the match. The others were Bautista Bernasconi, Benjam\u00edn Elizalde and Nicol\u00e1s Roger. In making his test debut, Ben\u00edtez Cruz became Puma no 898<\/a>. He went on to start game two against England<\/a> and also the match against Uruguay<\/a>. His first cap came at the age of 25.<\/p>\n

\"\"NEWCASTLE PUMAS<\/p>\n

Ben\u00edtez Cruz will join Eduardo Bello at the Newcastle Falcons. Bello joined the Northern England club from rivals Saracens in 2003<\/a>. Bello is presently the only Argentine on the Newcastle playing roster. Pedro Rubiolo made a mid-season transfer from Newcastle to the Bristol Bears this past season.\u00a0Pumas centers Mat\u00edas Moroni and Mat\u00edas Orlando are both former Newcastle Falcons\u2019 players as is winger Mateo Carreras.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sim\u00f3n Ben\u00edtez Cruz has completed a career-defining move from Argentina to continue his career in England. The Newcastle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-59731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59731","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=59731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}