Ignacio Dotti Re-Signed for 2025

By Alistair Kirsch-Poole
Dec 21, 2024 - 11:00pm

Old Glory has announced that lock Ignacio Dotti will be returning to the team for 2025. The 30-year-old Uruguayan is a veteran of the game, having played for Uruguay in the Junior World Rugby Trophy in 2014 as a teenager before debuting for senior side in 2015 when he was 20 years old. He has been a permanent fixture of the national team ever since with 65 total caps, having broken 60 caps at the 2023 World Cup in France.

Despite that long tenure of success, Dotti did not make his professional debut until he joined the NOLA Gold in 2019. He proceeded to play in New Orleans for the next four years, appearing 37 times for the Gold and being one of their stalwart contributors. In 2023, he moved to Penarol, Uruguay's entry in Super Rugby Americas, before returning to MLR in 2024 to play for Old Glory DC.

Dotti started the season strong for OGDC, starting the first six matches and proving himself a disruptive lineout defender. However, injury took him off the pitch and he didn't return to a team sheet until round 14, with no more starts. Overall, he earned 11 caps for a total of 473 minutes played.

In 2025, the big hope will be that he remains healthy enough to play regularly. However, with a crowded lock position and larger contingent of foreign players than last season, he will have to prove himself better enough than domestic options like Bill Whiteside in order to see the field. Regardless, a veteran presence and one so strong in the fundamentals and lineout tactics should be a great influence on the upcoming American talent he's competing alongside.