Juan Pablo Zeiss: “Today I can enjoy Los Pumas when I see them on television”

After a hard-fought victory in the debut in the URBA Top 14 Macro Cup in view of Regattas, Juan Pablo Zeiss analyzed the present of The Matreros on his return to the top category of Buenos Aires rugby after a decade.

The pillar, a key piece in this team, confirmed his total commitment to the West club for this season, leaving aside the comings and goings abroad in recent years. “No, my idea is to stay all year to enjoy the Top 14 with the club”he stated, emphasizing that after four years of alternating six months abroad and six here, today his priority is the club that gave him the opportunity when he came to Buenos Aires to study from his native Bariloche.

At 36 years old and with a vast career, Zeiss understands that his current role transcends what happens on the playing field, focusing on supporting a team that has regained its place in the elite. Your goal is “try to share a little of that experience that I had to live and help and collaborate from that side, sharing experiences, trying to convey where we have to look for the matches”.

For the youngest members of the squad, the message from the experienced front line is clear regarding the sense of belonging: “that they begin to understand what the whole history of this shirt means and what it fundamentally means to be playing in the Top 14 for a club like us”.

Regarding collective goals, the former Puma is realistic but ambitious in the team’s dedication. The north is set on permanence, but with a marked identity. “For this year we plan to maintain the category. That is what we aim for. Being competitive, being very intense, making it very difficult to play against us”he explained. Personally, Zeiss sees this process as the ideal closure for his journey in rugby: “It is a beautiful way to begin to close the entire sporting career… The objective is to achieve my best version this year to be able to contribute the best I can for the club”.

When reviewing his time at Los Pumas between 2018 and 2020, Zeiss recognizes that that cycle was a learning powerhouse that marked him with fire. “I was left with a lot, especially a lot of experience, a lot of growth on a personal level and on a sporting level. It was a lot of information that I had to assimilate all together which made me grow in a lot of aspects”he recalled. Despite having had an enviable career, he honestly admits that he had an unfinished business: “Yes, there were some things that I had left pending, I had to have played in a World Cup and that I was left there at the door, but the truth is that I can’t ask anything more from rugby.”

Today, with the perspective that time gives, Zeiss lives the present of the national team from a place of maturity and enjoyment, something that was not always easy to process after leaving the system.. “When I was left out of the system a little, it was a little more difficult to look at it, I’ll be honest, it was a little difficult for me to look and see that it wasn’t there.”he confessed. However, that feeling mutated into unconditional support: “Today I see it with the eyes of a 100% fan and I have already moved away a little from that, which is why today I can enjoy Los Pumas when I see them on television”.

The debut with victory in the Top 14 left a feeling of fulfillment in the Patagonian trained in Pehuenes, who did not hide his joy for Matreros’ present. When defining this moment in his life, Zeiss did not hesitate: “Happiness. Finishing last year as champions and today making this dream debut… winning the way we won at the end, is beautiful.”

With its sights set on a solid foundation and a year of full enjoyment, Zeiss clarifies that “It is a nice way to begin to close my entire sports career, I don’t know how much I will have left, one, two, three more years, I don’t know.”