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The 2017-2018 Top 14 season gets underway this weekend. Six of the seven matches are to be Saturday fixtures. The one remaining match will take place on Sunday.
First up on Saturday will be Oyonnax at home to Toulouse. No players from the Americas will be involved in the match. Former Oyonnax fly half, Benjamín Urdapilleta will start for Castres in game two.
Castres play away to Racing 92. Uruguayan Rodrigo Capó Ortega will join Urdapilleta in the starting line-up as will Canadian Taylor Paris. The Ontario flier makes his Castres debut. It follows four years with rivals Agen and one season prior to that playing for the Glasgow Warriors in the Guinness Pro 14 Championship. Juan Imhoff is to wear the 11 shirt for Racing 92.
Title contenders Montpellier open at home to Agen. The visitors have named former Jaguar Facundo Bosch to start at hooker. The USA eligible Dave Ryan joins him in the front-row, starting at Tight Head prop. Argentine-Italian Leandro Cedaro will cover second-row from the bench.
Another player from Argentina who is capped by Italy will play on Saturday. That player is the national captain, Sergio Parisse. He will play at the back of the scrum for Paris who host Lyon. Former Puma Francisco Gomez Kodela will hold down the scrum at Tight Head prop for the opposition.
Brive start their season at home to last season’s surprise package, La Rochelle. Starting on the right wing at the Stade Amédée Domenech will be Eagles flier Taku Ngwenya.
The final Saturday fixture sees Bordeaux hosting 2017 champions Clermont. Starting at fly half for Clermont will not be leading French 10 Camille Lopez but, rather Patricio Fernández. The Argentine 10 is among the best players unavailable for Los Pumas due to playing in Europe.
Closing the round will be Toulon vs Pau on Sunday. Line-ups for the fixture will be named on Saturday afternoon.
