Match Preview – San Juan vs Chile

Chile will play their only test match of November next weekend against Portugal. Having not played together since June, however, Cóndores coach Pablo Lemoine has arranged a warm-up fixture against Argentine province San Juan to be played on Saturday afternoon at Club Huazihul.

The group is close to that which played against Romania and Spain with only a few notable omissions. Javier Carrasco fills in for France-based Ramón Ayarza at loosehead prop while fellow 22-year-old Augusto Böhme is given a chance to press his claims ahead of the more experienced Tomas Dussaillant at hooker.

There are twin towers in the second row as Javier Eissmann and Pablo Huete man the engine room. The loose forward trio is as it was in both June tests with Martín Sigren captaining the side and compact but powerful Ignacio Silva at No8. Nicolás Garafulic provides another lineout option on the blindside flank.

Beltrán Vergara and the Santiago Videla continue their Old Boys club partnership in the halfbacks. Vicente Ayarza steps in for younger brother Iñaki at inside center, the latter opting to stay in Bayonne. Domingo Saavedra continues to be trialed at outside center having shown great promise as a scrumhalf.

Both teams have named extended benches as the match is informal in nature.

TEAMS

SAN JUAN
1 Sebastián Diez, 2 Guillermo Palacios, 3 Alan Pedrol, 4 Marcelo Benegas, 5 Leonardo Luna, 6 Santiago Pérez (capt.), 7 Julián Aguiar, 8 Ricardo Díaz. 9 Juan Ignacio Landa, 10 José Camacho. 11 Leopoldo Mas, 12 Rodrigo Perello, 13 Rafael Lértora, 14 Emilio Mas, 15 Facundo Sombra.

Replacements: 16 Esteban Pagés, 17 Nicolás Martínez, 18 Rodrigo Galdeano, 19 Alejandro Rojo, 20 Eduardo Caputo, 21 Nicolás De la Plata, 22 Marcos Ruffa, 23 Bruno Guajardo, 24 Juan Pablo González, 25 Santiago Jara

CHILE
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Augusto Böhme, 3 Matías Dittus, 4 Javier Eissmann, 5 Pablo Huete, 6 Martín Sigren, 7 Nicolás Garafulic, 8 Ignacio Silva, 9 Beltrán Vergara, 10 Santiago Videla, 11 José Ignacio Larenas, 12 Vicente Ayarza, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Lucca Avelli, 15  Christian Huerta

Replacements: 16 Tomás Dussaillant, 17 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 18 José Tomás Munita, 19 Augusto Sarmiento, 20 Mario Mayol, 21 Thomas Orchard, 22 Marcelo Torrealba, 23 Juan Pablo Larenas, 24 Benjamín Soto, 25 Benjamín Baraona, 26 Clemente Saavedra

Date: Saturday, November 9
Venue: Club Huazihul, San Juan
Kickoff: 17:00 local (12:00 Pacific, 15:00 Eastern)