Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
CASI and SIC clash this afternoon in El Clásico. The battle of San Isidro is among the biggest rivalries in club rugby worldwide. The Aviva Premiership has the East Midlands clash of Leicester Tigers vs Northampton Saints while Australia has the interstate battle of Waratahs vs Reds.
CASI vs SIC a case in point as to why Argentine clubs fought so hard against professionalism for so many years. Indeed, Jaguares players appearing in the URBA Top 12 continues to be a rarity.
Today’s fixture is to involve PladAR players on both sides. The starting mid-field will be Bruno Devoto and Santiago Álvarez Fourcade. Having played for the Argentina XV this year they are both fringe options for Los Pumas. Former Junior World Championship Player of the Year nominee Ignacio Rodríguez Muedra will play fly half.
Another fly half of note will start for SIC in Benjamín Madero. His battle against Rodríguez Muedra is to be a focal point of the match. Los Pumas 7’s flier Rodrigo Etchart will play right wing for SIC.
Both clubs have been heavy producers of Pumas past and present. Jaguares vice-captain Martín Landajo is from CASI. The club also produced both Santiago Phelan and Agustín Pichot, the former Pumas Head Coach and current World Rugby Vice Chairman.
Marcelo Loffreda played for SIC. The same is true of Diego Albanese, Diego Cash, Diego Cuesta Silva, Rolando Martín and Gonzalo Tiesi. More recently SIC flanker Alan Kessen was capped by Germany.
Both teams enter today’s match coming off losses. CASI fell 30-17 against Atletico del Rosario in round 9. SIC lost 17-10 at home against Pucará.
The lineups for today’s match are as follows:
CASI
1 Martín Brousson, 2 Ignacio Nieto Sánchez, 3 Marco Ciccioli, 4 Pablo Collarini, 5 Facundo Arocena, 6 Benito Paolucci, 7 Juan Ymaz, 8 Vicente Boronat, 9 Mauro Perotti, 10 Ignacio Rodríguez Muedra, 11 Nicolás Cotella, 12 Bruno Devoto, 13 Santiago Álvarez Fourcade, 14 Jerónimo Solveyra, 15 Tobías Casaurang
SIC
1 Ricardo Macchiavelo, 2 Francisco Piccinini, 3 Marcos Gatica, 4 Lucas Rizzato, 5 Tomás Borghi, 6 Andrea Panzarini, 7 Cristian Etchart, 8 Tomás Meyrelles, 9 Juan Soares Gache, 10 Benjamín Madero, 11 Lucas Bustos, 12 Santos Rubio, 13 Joaquín Ferrari, 14 Rodrigo Etchart, 15 Gastón Arias
