Match Preview – Uruguay vs Chile

There are Club Finals in the Aviva Premiership and Guinness Pro 12 this weekend. There are also the Top 14 Semi Finals. The most meaningful match though is to be in Montevideo, Uruguay. Los Teros have home advantage against Chile in a winner-takes-all Rugby World Cup qualifier.

After Saturday’s match one will seal an opportunity to face the North American runner-up. The loser will have no prize, instead being eliminated from Japan 2019 qualification.

Uruguay enters are the favorite. This is based on a variety of factors. First and foremost Uruguay has a superior record. The introduction of the Americas Rugby Championship has served to reinforce Los Teros’ as the better side.

Chile has not adapted well to the Americas Rugby Championship. Complications of playing missing to club duty in France and 7’s duty have gotten in the way of Los Cóndores fielding their strongest lineup.

The Estadio Charrúa is also a hostile environment. Uruguay are hard to defeat at home. Wins have come over both Canada and the USA in the Americas Rugby Championship. Uruguay have also avoided losses in Rugby World Cup qualifiers against the USA and Romania in previous campaigns.

Lastly, Uruguay has a High Performance program which is achieving the desired results. Athletes are better prepared than previously and Los Teros are more competitive as a unit. Weaknesses have been repaired, helping Uruguay officially achieve Tier 2 status from World Rugby.

For this weekend’s fixture Uruguay have gone for three changes. Two of these come in the forwards. Former Munster Tight Head prop Mario Sagario is back to start in place of Juan Echeverría. This sets up a mouth-watering battle with Chilean Ramón Ayarza.

Also back into the pack is Alejandro Nieto. He returns from injury to start at No 8. As such Gonzalo Soto has been named on the bench. He joins Diego Magno, Germán Kessler, Matías Benítez and Juan Echeverría to give Uruguay an extremely impressive list of replacement forwards. Kessler’s selection sees Facundo Gattas missing out.

Six of the seven starting backs from the win over Brazil remain. The one change is as expected with Agustín Ormaechea in for Santiago Arata. This means the Ormaechea – Felipe Berchesi combination will reunite for the first time in 2017.

Having steamrolled their way past Paraguay Chile are very upbeat about their chances. The Chileans were simply outstanding against Los Yákares. Their performance was so impressive that the match was over well before half time.

Chile dominated Paraguay – controlling the set-piece play, the breakdown, ball-carrying and line breaks. It was very much an ideal means of preparing for the ultimate challenge of Uruguay in Montevideo.

Looking to upset Uruguay Chile have gone for three changes. The country’s leading export, Pablo Huete is back for the first time in four years. Having last played for Chile in May 2013 he will start again in the second-row and again against Uruguay in Montevideo.

Huete has earned just five test caps. This spans a staggering amount of time following his debut against Tonga in September 2010. Huete has played professionally in New Zealand and France and was a regular this season in the Top 14 for Bayonne. The importance of his presence for Chile cannot be overstated.

With Huete available and fit the starting second-row will be him working in partnership with Mario Mayol. Nikola Bursic drops to the bench while Manuel Dagnino has been left out.

Additional changes for Los Cóndores see Francisco Da la Fuente coming in for José Ignacio Larenas at center and Tomás Ianiszewski for Rodrigo Fernández at fullback. This sees alterations to the replacements. Missing out this week is Matías Contreras while Francisco Urroz will cover Francisco González Moller at fly half if required.

URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Martín Espiga, 3 Mario Sagario, 4 Ignacio Dotti, 5 Manuel Leindekar, 6 Juan Manuel Gaminara (capt.), 7 Franco Lamanna, 8 Alejandro Nieto, 9 Agustín Ormaechea, 10 Felipe Berchesi, 11 Gastón Mieres, 12 Andrés Vilaseca, 13 Juan Manuel Cat, 14 Leandro Leivas, 15 Rodrigo Silva

Replacements: 16 Germán Kessler, 17 Matías Benítez, 18 Juan Echeverría, 19 Gonzalo Soto, 20 Diego Magno, 21 Santiago Arata, 22 Germán Albanell, 23 Santiago Hernández

CHILE
1 Ramón Ayarza, 2 Manuel Gurruchaga (capt.), 3 José Tomás Munita, 4 Pablo Huete, 5 Mario Mayol, 6 Ignacio Silva, 7 Anton Petrowitsch, 8 Benjamín Soto, 9 Jan Hasenlechner, 10 Francisco González Moller, 11 Franco Velarde, 12 Francisco de la Fuente, 13 Matías Nordenflycht, 14 Felipe Brangier, 15 Tomás Ianiszewski

Replacements: 16 Tomás Dussaillant, 17 Vittorio Lastra, 18 Maximiliano Hurtado, 19 Nikola Bursic, 20 Alfonso Rioja, 21 Beltrán Vergara, 22 Francisco Urroz, 23 José Ignacio Larenas

Date: Saturday, May 27
Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo
Kickoff: 3:30pm local (2:30pm Chile/Eastern)
Referee: Federico Anselmi (UAR)
Assistants: Juan Pablo Federico (UAR) & Leónidas Diez (UAR)
Broadcasts: DirecTV