Super Rugby Americas (SRA) will be bigger in 2026. The South American professional league is growing with Argentina set for a fourth franchise. The new SRA franchise will represent the Litoral region of Argentina; specifically the rugby unions of Rosario, Santa Fe and Entre Rios.
| SUPER RUGBY AMERICAS EXPANDS TO ROSARIO |
The Unión de Rugby Argentina (UAR) signed contracts today to make the Litoral franchise official. UAR President Gabriel Travaglini was joined by Carlos Fertonani, the CEO of Santa Fe Producciones in addition to the president of the Unión Entrerriana de Rugby, Martín Cipriani; the president of the Unión de Rugby de Rosario, Rubén González Fresneda; and the president of the Unión Santafesina de Rugby, Enrique Patrizi as the main guarantors of the agreement.
Together the UAR and Santa Fe Producciones signed a commercial agreement for the new SRA franchise to represent the Litoral beginning in the 2026 season.
The arrival of a team based in Rosario means Argentina will have four professional teams in SRA 2026 and will now have 50% of the teams in SRA. The yet to be named Litoral franchise joins Argentine teams Los Dogos (Córdoba), Los Pampas (Buenos Aires), and Los Tarucas (Tucumán). Los Dogos were 2024 Champions while Los Tarucas had their rookie season in 2025.
The UAR Regional Member Unions are displayed in the map below. Rosario is in pink, Entre Rios in green and Santa Fe in purple. Litoral on the map signifies the regional High Performance Center.
SRA began in 2020 as Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR). It was rebranded to Super Rugby Americas in 2023. The competition began as one team per country. Peñarol (Uruguay), and Selknam (Chile) are founding teams while rebranding saw Yacare XV (Paraguay) replacing Olímpia Lions and Os Cobras (Brazil) replacing Corinthians.
Argentina’s first team was Los Ceibos who, with Argentina gone from Super Rugby, was replaced by Los Jaguares XV in 2021. Los Cafeteros Pro joined in 2022 to give Colombia a professional rugby team for the first time. The team played two seasons and is now defunct.
Expansion in 2023 saw Los Dogos and Los Pampas entering. The former played in Córdoba and the latter in Buenos Aires and was a rebranded Los Jaguares XV. The American Raptors also joined to take the league to seven teams. The Denver, Colorado based Raptors played in SRA 2023 and 2024. Los Tarucas joined in 2024. Based in Tucumán, the franchise represents NOA, the Argentine North-West.
 2019 WORLD RUGBY u20 CHAMPIONSHIP |
The cities of Rosario and Santa Fé hosted the 2019 World Rugby u20 Championship. The Hipódromo de Rosario (Racecourse Stadium) was a primary venue. Among the matches hosted was the final which France won 24-23 against Australia. Los Pumitas defeated France 47-26 at the same venue earlier on in the tournament.
The Hipódromo de Rosario is expected to be the primary home venue for the new Argentine SRA franchise. When the team potentially joining was being mapped out, the municipality publicly stated plans to complete required improvements in order for the synthetic grass surface to again meet World Rugby approval. The plans also included installing lighting for night matches.
In late June of this year, the Unión de Rugby de Rosario signed an agreement with the City Hall to use one area of the installations, that being where the u20 World Championship was hosted. The location is also set to become the new home of the Unión de Rugby de Rosario and, with the support of the UAR, it will host the regional High Performance Center.
In addition to playing matches in Rosario, the new franchise may yet move several home matches to other locations. This could see Santa Fe as well as a city in Entre Rios province hosting home matches.
 LOS PUMAS IN LITORAL |
Rosario and Santa Fe have both played host to rugby test matches. Argentina’s recording-breaking win over Australia in the 2024 Rugby Championship took place in Santa Fe. Los Pumas and the Wallabies also previously played Rugby Championship matches in Rosario in 2012 and 2013.
| LITORAL PUMAS AND SUPER RUGBY AMERICAS |
The region is an important area for Argentine rugby. Rosario, Santa Fé and Entre Ríos contributed seven players to Argentina’s roster for Rugby World Cup 2023: Mayco Vivas and Pedro Rubiolo (Círculo Rafaelino, Rafaela), Marcos Kremer (Salto Grande, Concórdia), Santiago Chocobares (Pampas, Rufino), Emiliano Boffelli, and Jerónimo de la Fuente and Juan Imhoff (Duendes, Rosario).
The region has also contributed no shortage of players to SRA teams in past seasons. Scrum-halves Juan Cruz Strada (Yacare) and Juan Lovell (Dogos) are examples and Alejo Sugasti (Los Pumas 7’s) is another scrum-half from the region. Any or all could play for the new team
Fly half Juan Bautista Baronio has had impressive recent seasons for Los Dogos. Another fly half from the region is Valentino DiCapua (Yacare) while center Bruno Heit (Pampas) hooker Ramiro Gurovich (Pampas) and flanker Manuel Bernstein (Pampas) are also products of the area represented by the incoming Argentine SRA franchise.
