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With the advent of professional rugby in South America, soccer clubs Peñarol and Corinthians will battle it out in the new Súper Liga Americana e Rugby (SLAR). Their inaugural battle is to take place today in Montevideo in a warm-up match ahead of the 2020 season which begins on March 06.
The ground-breaking match will see a team resembling Brazil’s test side facing one that contains a notable number of men who featured at RWC 2019.
Corinthians have Brazil’s two 2019 Major League Rugby (MLR) players Josh Reeves and Arthur Bergo starting. Reeves joins Yan Rosetti, Felipe Sancery and Daniel Sancery as players who were brought to Brazil to become test players. The same is true of South African Devon Muller who will debut for Brazil in 2020 after completing three years of residency.
Starting at hooker for Peñarol is Namibia’s Obert Nortje who played at RWC 2019. He is one of four foreigners named to start the match for the Uruguayan side. The remaining players are second-rower Louis Conradie; fly half Bradley Thain; and left winger Rafaele Storti.
Captain Alejandro Nieto is a former MLR player, but will play for Peñarol in a new position. Pablo Bouza has named him at second-row, a reflection of the relative strengths of both Peñarol and Uruguayan rugby in general.
Neto played at RWCs 2015 and 2019 and was joined in Japan by Mateo Sanguinetti, who will start at loose head vs Corinthians; tight head Diego Arbelo; scrum-half Santiago Arata; centers Agustín Della Corte and Tomás Inciarte; winger Nicolás Freitas; and fullback Federico Favaro.
The Peñarol side also contains the promising Maxime Sonneveld and Juanjuan Garese who are u20s products who may debut for Uruguay in 2020.
The firepower of the Uruguayan side is expected to be too strong for the Brazilians, particularly in the second-half. As such ARN predicts a win for Peñarol by 25 points.
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TEAMS
PENAROL
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Obert Nortje, 3 Diego Arbelo, 4 Alejandro Nieto (capt.), 5 Louis Conradie, 6 Maxime Sonneveld, 7 Juanjuan Garese, 8 Santiago Civetta, 9 Santiago Arata, 10 Bradley Thain, 11 Raffaele Storti, 12 Agustín Della Corte, 13 Tomás Inciarte, 14 Nicolás Freitas, 15 Federico Favaro
CORINTHIANS
1 Leonel Moreno, 2 Yan Rosetti, 3 Pedro Bengalo, 4 Luiz Vieira, 5 Gabriel Paganini, 6 Devon Muller, 7 Arthur Bergo, 8 André Arruda, 9 Felipe Gonçalves, 10 Josh Reeves, 11 Daniel Silva, 12 Robert Tenorio, 13 Felipe Sancery (capt.), 14 Daniel Sancery, 15 Lucas Tranquez
Replacements: 16 Endy Willian, 17 Lucas Abud, 18 Matheus Rocha, 19 Cléber Días, 20 Matheus Cláudio, 21 Douglas Rauth, 22 Gabriel Quirino, 23 Laurent Bourda, 24 Caique Segura, 25 Henrique Ferreira, 26 Kauã Guimarães, 27 Adrio Melo
Date: Wednesday, February 26
Kick-Off: 8:00pm (Rio de la Plata, Brasilia), 11:00pm (GMT).
Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo
Referee: Santiago Romero (Uruguay)
Assistant Referees: Matías Esteban (Uruguay), Rafael Monestier (Uruguay)
