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Following the attention of the rugby world being glued to the final round of the Six Nations the same players will now be playing for their clubs. For Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and champions Wales this means the Pro 14. Week 18 of the league begins today and will see matches played across the four above mentioned nations on Friday and Saturday.
The involvement of Americas players is to be limited. This is based on a high number of injuries in addition to teams making use of their top international stars, something which often does not happen in the Pro 14.
The result is that there will be just two players from the Americas involved in week 18 of the Pro 14. Both of these men are to be playing for Italian sides and will be replacements. Tomás Baravalle is on the bench for Benetton who play away to Connacht later today.
On Sunday Marco Ciccioli will make his Pro 14 debut against Munster. Like Baravalle he is a former Argentina XV prop. He joined Zebre last week as a medical joker for the injured Eduardo Bello whose season was ended.
Baravalle is a player on the radar for RWC 2019. Argentina Head Coach Mario Ledesma met with him and Newcastle hooker Santiago Socino earlier this month. They join Facundo Bosch (Agen) as being options in the event that there are problems with Jaguares’ hooker Agustín Creevy, and Julián Montoya.
Creevy is presently out of action and when Montoya was injured in 2018 Ledesma called-up Bosch. At present Super Rugby rookie Gaspar Baldunciel is covering at Jaguares.
