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A special Tuesday test match will take place in Montevideo tomorrow. Los Teros will take on Russia in the opening round of the 2019 Nations Cup.
Uruguay welcome back Major League Rugby (MLR) players Santiago Arata, Diego Magno, Juan Echeverria, Alejandro Nieto, Mateo Sanguinetti, Rodrigo Silva, and Andrés Vilaseca. They are to also have Pro D2 player Manuel Leindekar involved.
The side named to face Russia is a step-up from that which played as the Uruguay XV in the Sudamérica 6 Naciones A yet it remains below the full-strength side that will take to the fields in Japan at RWC 2019.
Some experimenting against Russia sees starts for Tomás Inciarte, Juan Pedro Rombys, Gonzalo Soto, and Manuel Diana ahead of MLR players. In addition regular starting winger Nicolás Freitas will play outside center thereby enabling the inform Federico Favaro to start in addition to the break-out start from the Sudamérica 6 Naciones A, Felipe Etcheverry.
The 2019 Nations Cup marks a return to Uruguay for Russia. The difference between then and now is that the Bears join Los Teros in competing at RWC 2019. Russia will play in the tournament opener against Japan, and thereby have not traveled to Uruguay simply for match practice.
The lineup named to start for Russia is centered on Siberian based players. The Krasny Yar club alone will have six players starting the match. Of them the former Ireland, and England based Vasily Artemyev will captain the side from fullback.
Also from the Russian heartland rugby city of Krasnoyarsk will be Enisey STM players Evgeny Elgin, and Dmitry Gerasimov while three further players from these clubs are to face Uruguay from the bench.
There have been eight prior meetings between Uruguay, and Russia. Taking place between 2008, and 2017 the teams have split the results with four wins, and four losses each. The most recent fixture was in the 2017 Nations Cup with Uruguay winning 32-29.
The two matches prior to that were of note as they were do-or-die RWC qualifiers with the winner securing the final spot at RWC 2015 in England, and Wales. Russia won 22-21 in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia while Uruguay won the return fixture 36-27 in Montevideo to qualify for the RWC.
Russia are a team who have produced notable results in recent years. Wins have come outside of Europe against RWC 2019 competitors Canada, and Namibia. Uruguay has beaten these same sides in addition to the USA. Such results in addition to those from the past suggest Uruguay are favorites to beat Russia by 6 points.
TEAMS
URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 German Kessler, 3 Juan Pedro Rombys, 4 Gonzalo Soto, 5 Manuel Leindekar, 6 Juan Manuel Gaminara (capt.), 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Tomás Inciarte, 10 Juan Manuel Cat, 11 Rodrigo Silva, 12 Andrés Vilaseca, 13 Nicolás Freitas, 14 Federico Favaro, 15 Felipe Etcheverry
Replacements: 16 Guillermo Pujadas, 17 Facundo Gattas, 18 Juan Echeverria, 19 Diego Magno, 20 Alejandro Nieto, 21 Manuel Ardao, 22 Santiago Arata, 23 Juan Pablo Constabile
RUSSIA
1 Andrei Polivalov, 2 Evgeny Matveev, 3 Kirill Gotovtsev, 4 Evgeny Elgin, 5 Bogdan Fedotko, 6 Eme Patris Peki, 7 Tagir Gadzhiev, 8 Victor Gresev, 9 Dmitry Perov, 10 Yury Kushnarev, 11 Kirill Golosnitskiy, 12 Dmitry Gerasimov, 13 Vladimir Ostroushko, 14 German Davydov, 15 Vasily Artemyev (capt.)
Replacements: 16 Sergey Chernyshev, 17 Evgeny Mishechkin, 18 Vladimir Podrezov, 19 Alexander Ilin, 20 Roman Khodin, 21 Vasily Dorofeev, 22 Ramil Gaisin, 23 Vladislav Sozonov
Date: Tuesday, June 03
Kick-Off: 6:00pm (local)
Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo
Referee: Frank Murphy (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: Francisco González (Uruguay), Marcelo Pineyro (Uruguay)
