History Maker Nicolás Sánchez Hangs Up His Boots

History maker Nicolás Sánchez has announced his retirement from rugby at the age of 36. El Cachorro Left his mark on Argentine and global rugby. He is the top point scorer for Argentina at Rugby World Cups, Argentina’s all-time top point scorer, the man who scored all 25 of Argentina’s points in the historic first-ever win over New Zealand and a two-time Rugby World Cup Semi Finalist.

Born on October 26, 1988 in Tucumán, Sánchez is a product of the Tucumán Lawn Tennis club. He went through the local and provincial system and was selected for u19 duty for Argentina in 2007. He also played for Argentina at u20 level before joining the seniors.

Sánchez is the 737th Puma but just the second Puma to reach 100 caps. He retires with 902 test match points. He scored 15 tries, kicked 130 conversions, 173 penalties and 12 drop-goals. Sánchez is followed by two World Rugby Hall of Famers in second and third for points scored by a Puma. Felipe Contepomi (651 points) is second and Hugo Porta (590 points) is third.

Sánchez was one of two supporting fly half options to Felipe Contepomi at Rugby World Cup 2011. The other was Santiago Fernández who was playing his rugby for Montpellier while Sánchez was the playmaker for Los Pampas XV in the Vodacom Cup. Sánchez helped the Argentines to the title in South Africa.

2011 also saw Sánchez signing his first professional contract abroad. He joined Bordeaux in the Top 14 that year and moved to Toulon in 2014. He returned to Argentina in 2016 for Super Rugby with Los Jaguares before moving to Stade Français in 2018 and Brive in 2022. He then played in Japan for Tokyo Sungoliath before returning to where it all began as he played for Lawn Tennis in 2024.

Every one of his 104 test caps were played at the position of fly half. He became the first-choice fly half for Argentina in November 2012. In his first major start, Sánchez scored 13 points against Wales in Cardiff.

His career high was 29 test points against Japan in Tokyo in 2016. However, it was his 25 points against New Zealand which saw him mark down his name in history. In a man-of-the-match performance, Sánchez impressed in Argentina’s history-ever win over New Zealand.

It came five years after Sánchez had been at the top of his game at Rugby World Cup 2015. He was man-of-the-match for Los Pumas against Ireland. Sánchez scored 23 points in the Quarter Final win in Cardiff, Wales. It followed his 25 points in the pool match against Tonga. He also scored 15 points against both Georgia and Australia. He had the honor of captaining Argentina in the Bronze Final against South Africa.

Sánchez went on to play in two further Rugby World Cups; the last of which saw him scoring the match-sealing try to advance to the Semi Finals. His try helped put to bed his personal disappointment at the campaign from four years earlier in Japan.

2025 starts as the end of an era; three Pumas in their twilight at Rugby World Cup 2023 have now retired. Sánchez follows Agustín Creevy and Juan Imhoff in having played for Argentina for the final time. Imhoff joined Sánchez in defeating the All Blacks for the first time while Creevy claimed the scalp in 2024 at the age of 39 weeks before his test retirement. The hooker is now playing in Italy while Imhoff and Sánchez have hung up their boots altogether.