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History will be made on Saturday as Uruguay play home to Colombia for the first time in international rugby competition. The fixture will be the second between the Uruguay XV, and Colombia, and will see the home side with a chance of securing the Sudamérica 6 Naciones title.
For the match the Uruguay XV have heavily rotated their playing roster. It sees an entirely changed front-row with Joaquín Juansolo, Guillermo Pujadas, and Faustino Etchegorry named to start in place of Facundo Gattas, Germán Kessler, and Juan Pedro Rombys.
The policy is to give others an opportunity though there are also some RWC contenders involved in the match. This sees regular captain Juan Manuel Gaminara not involved with Juan Diego Ormaechea starting and leading the side in his place at flanker. Leandro Segredo also starts with Santiago Civetta moving to No8 in place of Manuel Diana.
Of the backs who started in the win over Brazil last Saturday five names have been repeated. They are to be Tomás Inciarte at scrum-half; Agustín Della Corte, and Alfonso Costa in the mid-field; and Juan Pablo Costabile, and Federico Favaro on the wings.
Changes to the backline come at fly half, and fullback with Manuel Blengio, and Felipe Etcheverry replacing Matías D’Avanzo, and José Iruleguy respectively. The selection of Etcheverry is noteworthy as he was so impressive against Brazil from the bench that he must now be a genuine contender for a place on the RWC roster.
Colombia have also rotated heavily. With their humbling win over Paraguay seeing them gain in the rankings they have effectively completed their mission for the tournament. This sees Los Tucanes fielding a side with six changes.
Included in the changes is the captaincy. With José Manuel Diosa named on the bench the team will instead be led by hooker Diego Posada. He will form the front-row with Mauricio Espinal, and Andrés Arango.
Espinal takes over from Yani Pérez while there is also a start for Danny Giraldo who replaced Jhon Carlos Álvarez in the second-row. The remaining change to the forwards comes at flanker where Nicolás Cadaver will play in the position left vacant by Giraldo playing in the engine room.
In the backs Los Tucanes go in with Julián Navarro in place of Alejo Vanegas as the starting scrum-half. He will play inside Andres Alvarez who retains his spot at fly half.
The centers are unchanged with Geovanny Carvajal, and Juan Dávila to start against the impressive Uruguay XV pairing. In the back-three regular winger Arley Urrutia moves from wing to fullback, and will be joined by Juan Sebastián Giraldo, and Brayan Guzmán.
The Uruguay XV must win to have any chance of claiming the Sudamérica 6 Naciones A title. They go in with 10 competition points, the same as that of the Argentina XV. Yet with the Argentina XV having a +128 record compared to the Uruguay XV’s +26 the Uruguay XV also need for Brazil to upset the Argentina XV.
The Uruguay XV and Colombia have played one prior match. It was part of the inaugural Sudámerica 6 Naciones A with the teams facing-off in Medellín. On that occasion the Uruguay XV were 26-5 winners. A second win is highly likely on Saturday with the Uruguay XV going into the game vs Los Tucanes as favorites to win by 40 points.
The match will be broadcast live in the region by DirecTV.
URUGUAY XV
1 Joaquín Juansolo, 2 Guillermo Pujadas, 3 Faustino Etchegorry, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 JuanJuan Garese, 6 Leandro Segredo, 7 Juan Diego Ormaechea (capt.), 8 Santiago Civetta, 9 Tomás Inciarte, 10 Manuel Blengio, 11 Juan Pablo Costabile, 12 Agustín Della Corte, 13 Alfonso Costa, 14 Federico Favaro, 15 Felipe Etcheverry
Replacements: 16 Manuel Ardao, 17 Santiago Nicolich, 18 Santiago Bonasso, 19 Diego Arbelo, 20 Gonzalo Soto Mera, 21 Tomás Ubilla, 22 Matías D’Avanzo, 23 Felipe Arcos Pérez
COLOMBIA
1 Mauricio Espinal, 2 Diego Posada (capt.), 3 Andrés Arango, 4 Danny Giraldo, 5 Santiago Mejía, 6 Nicolás Cadavid, 7 Diver Ceballos, 8 Gerson Ortiz, 9 Julián Navarro, 10 Andrés Álvarez, 11 Juan Sebastián Giraldo, 12 Geovanny Carvajal, 13 Juan Dávila, 14 Brayan Guzmán, 15 Arley Urrutia
Replacements: 16 Yani Pérez, 17 Brayan Pérez, 18 Carlos Angulo, 19 Jhon Carlos Álvarez, 20 Julián Velandia, 21 Johan Ortiz, 22 Cristian Rodallegas, 23 José Manuel Diosa
Date: Saturday, May 24
Kick-off: 6pm (local), 4pm (Colombia)
Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo
Referee: Frank Méndez (Chile)
Assistant Referees: Santiago Romero (Uruguay), Gonzalo Ventoso (Uruguay)
