Sudamérica Preview – Paraguay vs Brazil

In the opening round of the 2019 Sudaméricana 6 Naciones A Paraguay play host to Brazil in Asunción. With heavy investment into the Brazilian test side Os Tupis have shot up the Americas and World Rankings and are very much a team to watch carefully for the next RWC cycle.

The changing times are reflected in Brazil being the toughest of the three Sudaméricana 6 Naciones A matches for Paraguay. Their following matches are to be against Colombia, and Chile while Brazil will face the tougher opponents of the Uruguay XV, and Argentina XV.

In taking-on Brazil the team selection comes with some surprises. While the leading forward from 2018, Carlos Plate, will start the leading back Sergio Alvarenga has been named on the bench.

In terms of who faced Colombia in Paraguay’s historic away defeat last September the team sees seven of the same players starting. The notable absentee, aside from Alvarenga, is Leonardo Glizt with the second-rower having been a leading performer for Paraguay last year.

Those returning from the match against Los Condores are Martín Sitar, Mariano Garcete, Enrique Riera, Carlos Plate, Gastón Navas, Renato Carona, and Diego Argaña. Changes see Sitar moving from tight head to loose head; and Cardona from wing to fullback.

Two months on from the end of the Americas Rugby Championship (ARC) Os Tupis return to the playing field. They are to do so well placed to open their defense of the Sudaméricana 6 Naciones A against neighbors Paraguay.

Nine players who started in the most recent fixture against Uruguay will start against Paraguay on Saturday. In the forwards those retained are hooker Yan Rosetti; tight head prop Wilton Rebolo; second-rowers Luiz Vieira, and Gabriel Paganini, flanker Cléber Dias and N8 André Arruda.

Of the backs three who started against Uruguay have been retained, yet of them only fullback Daniel Sancery will do so in the same position. Robert Tenório moves from left wing to outside center; and Lucas Tranquez moves from right wing to fly half.

Since the creation of the ARC Brazil has well-and-truly boomed to be notably above the level to that of Paraguay. This is underlined when considering the match results between the teams over recent years. In the 2017 South American Championship Brazil were 56-7 winners, a record result for Os Tupis.

Prior to that the teams met in 2016 with Brazil winning 32-21 in Asunción while the 2015 result was a 17-11 win by Los Yácares in Bento Gonçalves and in 2014 they were also successful, downing Brazil 31-24 in Asunción.

The 2014 and 2015 wins were both upset results as Brazil had won five in-a-row over Paraguay from 2018-2012. Paraguay will be looking to return to winning ways though this is a match heavily tilted in Os Tupis favor. Brazil go into the game favorites to win by 40 points.

The match will be streamed live by Tigo Sports on youtube.

 

TEAMS

PARAGUAY
1 Martín Sitjar, 2 Emilio Gorostiaga, 3 Germán Aranda, 4 Mario Bravo, 5 Mariano Garcete, 6 Enrique Riera, 7 Marcos Riquelme, 8 Carlos Plate, 9 Gastón Navas, 10 Joaquín Auge, 11 Marcelo Matiauda, 12 Diego Argaña, 13 Gonzalo Berdejo (capt.), 14 Santiago Alamo, 15 Renato Cardona

Replacements: 16 Daniel Cabral, 17 Joaquín Vera, 18 Enrique Quinteros, 19 Ariel Nuñez, 20 David Soso, 21 Eymard Brizuela, 22 Sergio Alvarenga, 23 Camilo Orrego

BRAZIL
1 Lucas Abud, 2 Yan Rosetti, 3 Wilton Rebolo, 4 Luiz Vieira, 5 Gabriel Paganini, 6 Mathues Souza, 7 Cléber Dias, 8 André Arruda, 9 Laurent Bourdat, 10 Lucas Tranquez, 11 Daniel Silva, 12 de Wet van Niekerk, 13 Robert Tenório, 14 Stefano Giantorno, 15 Daniel Sancery

Replacements: 16 Caíque Silva, 17 Pedro Bengalo, 18 Matheus Rocha, 19 Lucas Piero Moraes, 20 Michael Oliveira, 21 Douglas Rauth, 22 Lucas Duque, 23 Ariel Rodrigues

Date: Saturday, May 11
Kick-Off: 3:30pm (Paraguay), 4:30pm (Brasilia)
Venue: Estadio Héroes de Curupaytí, Asunción
Referee: Francisco González (Uruguay)