Test Match Preview – Uruguay vs Spain

The international rivalry between Uruguay and Spain will continue on Saturday. Los Teros will host Los Leones in their fourth, and final home test match of the June Internationals.

For both the fixture will close-out a busy few weeks of activity. Spain goes into the game with two wins on tour. Los Leones began by beating Brazil 22-16, and then went on to defeat Chile 29-22. A win over Los Teros would see a historic tour sweep in South America.

Uruguay have played three June Internationals already, doing so for a 2-1 return. The first match was against Russia and saw Uruguay in control in what was a 48-26 victory. In game two Uruguay started poorly and would ultimately fall 30-28 against Namibia. They would improve notably to claim a 28-15 win over the Argentina XV.

Uruguay’s line-up sees the return of the Toronto Arrows duo of Leandro levies, and Gastón Mieres.  They are to start with Rodrigo Silva of the Austin Elite joining them in completing the back-three. Additional foreign-based starting backs include Andrés Vilaseca, and Agustín Ormaechea.

The forwards have plenty of horsepower. This is particularly evident in the second-row with Ignacio Dotti, and Manuel Leindekar giving Los Teros a rare giant pairing in the engineroom. They will play behind a front-row of Mateo Sanguinetti, Germán Kessler, and Juan Pedro Rombys.

There have been eleven prior test matches between Uruguay, and Spain. The first was won by Spain 16-8 in 1987. Since then Uruguay has won six matches with Spain winning four to give Los Teros an overall 6-5 record.

The most recent match was at the same venue as Saturday’s clash – the Estadio Charrúa. On that occasion Uruguay were 24-14 winners.

Uruguay’s loss against Namibia was a wake-up call. It worked as Los Teros performed brilliantly against the Argentina XV. Combined with their earlier win over Russia and Spain’s unconvincing wins over Brazil, and Spain it is Los Teros who are expected to win. Uruguay enter as favorites to win by 10 points.

The match will be streamed live. It can be seen here.

 

TEAMS

URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Germán Kessler, 3 Juan Pedro Rombys, 4 Ignacio Dotti, 5 Manuel Leindekar, 6 Juan Manuel Gaminara (capt.), 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Agustín Ormaechea, 10 Juan Manuel Cat, 11 Rodrigo Silva, 12 Andrés Vilaseca, 13 Nicolás Freitas, 14 Leandro Leivas, 15 Gastón Mieres

Replacements: 16 Guillermo Pujardas, 17 Facundo Gattas, 18 Juan Echeverría, 19 Gonzalo Soto Mera, 20 Leandro Segredo, 21 Juan Diego Ormeachea, 22 Santiago Arata, 23 Tomás Inciarte

SPAIN
1 Fernando Lopez, 2 Vicente del Hoyo, 3 Alberto Blanco, 4 Manuel Mora, 5 Michael Walker-Fitton, 6 Victor Sánchez, 7 Juan Pablo Guido, 8 Afa Tauli, 9 Facundo Munilla, 10 David Mélé, 11 Guillermo Domínguez, 12 Alvar Gimeno, 13 Richard Stewart, 14 Ignacio Contardi, 15 Silvio Federico Casteglioni

Replacements: 16 Thierry Futeu, 17 Pablo Miejimolle, 18 Mattius Pisapia, 19 Len Ascroft-Leigh, 20 Oier Goia, 21 Emiliano Calle, 22 Jordi Jorba, 23 Julen Goia

Date: Saturday, June 22
Kick-Off: 7:15pm (Local)
Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo
Referee: Federico Anselmi (Argentina)