Test Match Preview – Chile vs Romania

In the opening weekend of the 2019 June Internationals Chile play host to Romania. The fixture is to be historic as never before have the teams met at the senior level in international competition.

For Chile the game falls two weeks after their most recent test match. In the final round of the Sudamérica 6 Naciones A Chile were 53-10 winners over Paraguay.

Head Coach Pablo Lemoine has made wholesale changes to name arguably the strongest Cóndores line-up of 2019. The changes begin in the front-row with Ramón Ayarza replacing Javier Carrasco at loose head, and Augusto Böhme replacing Tomás Dussaillant.

The second-row is unchanged as is the back-row though all three Cóndores who started against Paraguay will play in different back-row positions against Romania.

In the backs Beltrán Vergara replaces Domingo Saavedra at scrum-half. The latter moves position to be the starting inside center. Between them will be Santiago Videla who replaces Benjamín Baraona in the pivotal position.

Out wide Iñaki Ayarza replaces Tomás Salas on the left wing, Julio Blanc moves from the right wing to outside center with Lucca Avelli joining Ayarza, and fullback Christian Huerta in the back-three.

For Romania the match is a vital part of reestablishing credibility on the international stage. The Eastern Europeans were disqualified from RWC 2019 after it was confirmed that center Sione Faka’osilea was never eligible to play for Romania.

A long process ended with Romania losing their place at the Rugby World Cup, and being replaced by Russia. The magnitude of the calamity has far-reaching consequences for rugby in Romania and has already seen a decrease of regular competition.

Their tour to South America is a new opportunity. Officially it will enable the Oaks to begin their RWC 2023 qualifying preparations, doing so four months before RWC 2019. While this is an advantage there is no denying the tremendous loss to Romania that not competing in a RWC for the first time means.

Their match against Chile sees opportunities for new players. In the starting line-up this comes in the form of center Taylor Gontineach, and right winger Mihai Lamboiu who are both to make their test match debuts.

A third debutant will feature on the bench with Gabriel Rupanu to earn his first cap in the event that he receives game time.

Captaining Romania will be Colomiers (France) forward Mihai Macovei. The veteran of RWCs 2011, and 2015 will lead the side from flanker in his 84th test match appearance for the Oaks.

With the match officially beginning international competition between Chile and Romania there are no prior test matches to consider in historical or direct comparative competition.

The rankings, and overall performances both in 2019 and in recent years strongly point to Romania as being the stronger of the two teams. They combine to make the Oaks the odds-on-favorites to win Saturday’s test match in Valparaíso by 25 points.

 

TEAMS

CHILE
1 Ramón Ayarza, 2 Augusto Böhme, 3 Matías Dittus, 4 Pablo Huete, 5 Javier Eissman, 6 Nicolás Garafulic, 7 Ignacio Silva, 8 Martín Sigren (capt.), 9 Beltrán Vergara, 10 Santiago Videla, 11 Iñaki Ayarza, 12 Domingo Saavedra, 13 Julio Blanc, 14 Lucca Avelli, 15 Christian Huerta

Replacements: 16 Tomás Dussaillant, 17 Javier Carrasco, 18 José Tomás Munita, 19 Augusto Sarmiento, 20 Clemente Saavedra, 21 Benjamín Soto, 22 Juan Pablo Larenas, 23 Benjamín Baraona

ROMANIA
1 Constantin Pristavita, 2 Eugen Capatana, 3 Alexandru Gordas, 4 Johan van Heerden, 5 Marius Antonescu, 6 Mihai Macovei (capt.), 7 Adrian Ion, 8 Cristi Chirica, 9 Florin Surugiu, 10 Tudor Boldor, 11 Nicolas Onutu, 12 Florin Vlaicu, 13 Taylor Gontineac, 14 Mihai Lamboiu, 15 Dorin Manole

Replacements: 16 Alexandru Savin, 17 Ovidiu Cojocaru, 18 Cosmin Manole, 19 Ionut Muresan, 20 Vlad Neculau, 21 Gabriel Rupanu, 22 Daniel Plau, 23 Robert Neagu

Date: Saturday, June 08
Kick-Off: 4:30pm (Local)
Venue: Estadio Elías Figueroa, Valparaíso
Referee: Henrique Platais (Brazil)