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A number of Americas’ Players are to take to the field in France this weekend in week 20 of the Top 14. This season’s competition has continued with the unpredictability of previous years as many different clubs are proving capable of both reaching the play-offs or being relegated.
Opening week 20 will be a home match for the impressive Montpellier. The Mediterranean city club will host Brive this evening. For Argentine fans the match is one to take note of as Brive is a club which is likely to have a number of un capped players selected by Guy Noves for France’s two match tour of Argentina in June.
A south-west derby will see Castres open to Toulouse on Saturday. Captaining the home side will be Uruguayan Rodrigo Capó Ortega. He will not be up against his neighbor as Patricio Albacete will play no part. The Toulouse veteran and former Pumas vice-captain is sidelined with ligament damage. Joining Capó Ortega, though, will be Benjamin Urdapilleta at fly half.
On the Atlantic coast La Rochelle will have an opportunity to rise from 10th to as high as 7th. Opponents Stade Français are coming off a poor away performance against Toulouse last weekend and are languishing in 12th position. Head Coach Gonzalo Quesada needs his troops to win on the road.
Down in Agen it is to be do-or-die. The bottom seeded club plays host to last season’s Pro d2 champions, Pau and enters the match some 15 points behind 12th spot. Needing to rise Agen simple must win against Pau. Doing so will be complicated but utterly necessary. The U.S eligible Dave Ryan will be involved for Agen and Argentina’s Juan Pablo Orlandi will feature for the visitors.
Over at the foot of the Alps Oyonnax is another side in desperate need of points. Few visitors find it easy to win in Oyonnax but opponents Grenoble are coming off a great performance against La Rochelle. Points for Grenoble may well spell relegation for the home side who has not been the same since Urdapilleta moved to Castres. The club is looking to Jamie Cudmore to rectify this.
Saturday’s last match may well be a preview of this season’s final. Two teams to stand this season will go head-to-head at the new Matmut Atlantique stadium in Bordeaux. A crowd of 42,000 is expected with Racing 92 set to play in a big stadium for a second week in a row. 50,000 witnessed Racing 92 lose at the death against Toulon last weekend.
This time around Racing 92 are to be the visiting club and are to field a depleted lineup so as to have players in ideal shape for next weekend’s Champions Cup Quarter Final. Among the rested is Juan Imhoff though his former Pumas teammate, Manuel Carizza will start. Argentine-Italian prop Martín Castrogiovanni will also play in the run-on team.
Additional Americas Players will feature on Sunday in the final fixture of Week 20 as Toulon host Clermont in a repeat of last year’s Champions Cup Final. Lineups for the fixture will not be confirmed until Saturday afternoon.
