Legisamon, Juan Manuel

Legisamon began his rugby career for an Argentinean amateur club, San Isidro . In 2005, the British and Irish Lions toured New Zealand, but the first preparatory match was held in Cardiff against Argentina, where Juan Manuel had been called for some time. The athlete’s performance in that match, which ended in a 25:25 draw, was so impressed with the London Irish management that the player was immediately invited to the team ^[1] . In his debut season in England, Legisamon became a core player, earning the praise of journalists and fans ^[2] .

He was no less important for the team in the 2006/07 season, although he went down in the history of “Note-notes” for a completely different reason. In the Premier League match against the Spurs , Juan Manuel scored “an attempt that never happened.” Having broken through the opponent’s defense, he ran to the test zone, but while already jumping over the line he dropped the ball out of his hands and did not count the skid ^{[3] [4]} . In 2008, Legisamon was signed by Stud France , where he joined several national team partners at once: Rodrigo Roncero , Mario Ledesme and Juan Martin Hernandez ^[5] . In Paris, the rugby player has established himself as a very hardy and useful player, but his credibility was undermined at the beginning of the 2010/11 season. In the match against Toulouse , one of the club’s principal rivals, during the capture he hit the opponent in the eye area and received a yellow card. After the match, the disciplinary committee of the league suspended the athlete for 80 days, while the Stade France was left without its last main player of the third line - the rest, for various reasons, also could not take part in the matches ^[6] .

Before the start of the 2011/12 season, Legisamon signed a contract with Lyon , which he joined after the end of the World Cup ^[7] . In the same season, the team left the top division and the next two seasons, Juan Manuel, together with the team, struggled to get back to Top 14. The first attempt was unsuccessful, but in the 2013/14 season, “Wolves” held the first line in Pro D2 for 29 rounds from 30 and earned a raise. For a long time, the Lyon did not stay in the elite and flew out the next year, however, a few months later Legisamon signed a contract with the new Argentinean Super Rugby franchise, which he joined in the 2016 season ^[8] .

Juan Manuel Legisamon made his debut for the Argentine national team in 2005 in a match against the Japanese national team , in which he also made his first attempt. In the next two years, he alternated matches in the first team against less powerful teams with substitutions for only a few minutes in meetings with the strongest teams in the world. The rugby player managed to make himself known in the group stage of the 2007 World Cup , where he showed his highest efficiency and focus on results, and in the match against Namibia he managed to take a double ^[9] . Nevertheless, in the elimination matches, Legisamon had to be content with only substitutions, and in the game for third place with the French national team, he earned yellow for a high capture at Sebastien Chabal , which, however, did not prevent Pumas from winning and becoming the third in history at world championships ^[10] .

The rugby player approached the next World Cup already as an unconditional player of the basic structure and by that time almost always played in the national team in the position of flanker. At the tournament, he spent all five matches on the field, in a meeting with the Romanians made his next attempt, and in the match with Georgia he was recognized as the player of the match ^[11] . Since 2012, the Argentine national team began to participate in the Rugby Championship, the annual tournament of the best teams in the Southern Hemisphere. In the 2013 season, Legisamon became the Pumas top scorer in the tournament with three attempts. In 2015, a rugby player was called up to the national team for his third world championship ^[12] . There, the athlete failed to show his scorer qualities, and although he went out on the field in all the team's matches, he spent much less playing time, inferior to the younger Pablo Matera .

• Player profile on the Haguares site.
• Player profile (inaccessible link) on the Argentina national team website.