By Paul Eddison, Sportsbeat

Rodrigo Isgro had already played at a Rugby World Cup before he first played a game of professional club rugby. To say his journey to the top has been unusual would be an understatement.

The Argentinian sevens superstar, who has just extended his contract at Harlequins, first picked up a rugby ball at the age of four after being taken along to a rugby club by his uncle in his home town of Mendoza.

That was the start of a love affair with the oval ball that has led him all around the world, culminating in south-west London two decades on.

While his dream very quickly became to play for Los Pumas, his path to the top was not what he expected.

Isgro grew up in Mendoza, some 1000km west of Buenos Aires, a city located in the foothills of the Andes best known for being the wine capital of Argentina.

But even though his family were not necessarily rugby fans, they have been a huge part of his journey.

He explained: “My mum, my dad and my sister have been integral to my career, they have supported me a lot from the very first day. My dad ended up being manager of the club and was there every day. Mendoza Rugby Club, where I played, is my life. It is my second home.”

Part of a regional academy in Argentina from 16, Isgro’s ambition was to play on the global stage for Argentina Under-20s – which he finally achieved on home soil at the 2019 World Under-20s Championships, having twice done the preparations with the team over the previous two years.

His career trajectory changed dramatically in the aftermath. Offered the chance to play sevens under Pumas legend Santiago Gomez Cora, Isgro switched to the shorter format of the game as part of an Argentina squad that established themselves among the very best in the world.

Banking on the cohesion of a core of players all backed over a number of years, Los Pumas started picking up wins in the World Series and won a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Isgro was at the heart of everything they did well, crowned World Player of the Year in 2023 in recognition.

Last year could have been his crowning glory, with Argentina the clear class of the field on the circuit on their way to finishing league champions.

However, in the Sevens Grand Final, they were upset by France in the final, with Isgro himself sent off in the final seconds of the game for a tip tackle.

The resulting ban kept him out of the group stages of the Olympics in Paris, and when he returned, he could not prevent Los Pumas 7 losing to eventual gold medallists France and a certain Antoine Dupont in the quarter-finals.

It is a result that still rankles.

“The Olympics, personally, left a bit of a bitter taste,” he recalls.

“I got a red card in the final in Madrid and had to miss games at the Olympics because of my ban. The result wasn’t what we wanted and it wasn’t what we had gone there for. It was hard, there was a bitter taste. But that is part of sport, you win and you lose. I’m not sure if you lose, you learn, that is what we always say.

“I have no doubt that what happened to us at the Olympics will serve the team well for the future. The good thing with sevens is that you can move onto the next game very quickly.”

For Isgro, the next move was across to 15s. He had already been called into the fold by Michael Cheika for the 2023 World Cup – a remarkable show of faith considering he had played exclusively sevens since that 2019 age group showing.

He notched a try in his sole appearance in France against Chile, but realised that if he wanted to make a real go of 15s, he would have to make the switch full-time.

That led to a lot of soul-searching in 2024 over his future, before finally deciding that he wanted to give it ago and that Harlequins was the place to do it.

He explained: “In 2023, I played the World Cup with Los Pumas and that was amazing for me. There was something that clicked in my head, I wanted to play for Los Pumas, it had been my lifelong dream.

“When I was there, I knew that if I wanted to play for Los Pumas, I needed to play 15s, so in 2024 it was a case of chewing it over. I was going to have to leave somewhere I was very happy, somewhere I had grown for a long time in Pumas 7. But I knew that I would have leave that to discover new things. It was an internal battle that lasted a number of months. There was a lot of introspection last year over what I wanted in my life.

“The opportunity then presented itself to play for a club like Harlequins. There were a number of options but I knew it was the best place for me to continue to grow and to keep improving.”

Isgro hit the ground running at Quins, scoring two tries on debut against Bath and quickly showing that his X-factor in sevens could transfer to 15s.

The biggest challenge has been physical, adapting his body to 80-minute efforts rather than the short sharp bursts of sevens.

But even though he admits his English is still a work in progress, Isgro feels at home at the Stoop, hence the decision to extend his contract through to 2027.

That leaves the door open to another Olympic shot in three years’ time, but before then, he has a lot of ambitions in the 15-man game – including a pair of big games in Dublin this year, one for Harlequins against Leinster in the Investec Champions Cup, the second with Argentina against the British & Irish Lions this summer.

He added: “I played my first game at the Aviva Stadium last year. This year, we will play two games in Dublin, both incredibly difficult. One with the club and then one for my country. Hopefully I’ll be able to play those matches. They will be really difficult.

“The Lions match, we know it’s a really great opportunity for us and for Argentinian rugby. Knowing how important the Lions are in world rugby, it’s special. It’s a unique opportunity to play them so I’d love to be able to enjoy everything that goes with it.

“It would be spectacular to play against Marcus Smith. We are playing England in July, but hopefully he will be picked by the Lions so he wouldn’t be there. So it would be great to play him.”