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The first game of the inaugural Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) will be between Peñarol and Selknam. To underline the growth of rugby in South America it is fittingly an Uruguayan vs Chile fixture. Moreover, the fixture will be at the Estadio Charrúa. ARN’s own Paul Tait has viewed the facilities in depth and notes them as very impressive.
Peñarol is a neighborhood in northern Montevideo. It is home to the country’s most successful soccer club, also known as Peñarol. The rugby team will not play at the impressive Estadio Campéon del Siglo. Instead it will play in the national rugby headquarters, in eastern Montevideo.
Head Coach: Peñarol are coached by Pablo Bouza, a 46-year-old from Rosario, Argentina. Bouza played in the UK for the Harlequins and Leeds Carnegie and was a Puma who earned 37 caps from 1996-2017. These included two matches at RWC 2003. Twelve years later he was an assistant coach to Daniel Hourcade at RWC 2015. He played at both second-row and N8, a mix which has already been replicated by Peñaol captain, Alejandro Nieto.
CAPTAIN: With two RWCs to his name, Alejandro Nieto was always going to be a leading contender for the Peñarol captaincy. He also has 71 test caps and prior professional experience in Major League Rugby (MLR) for the Houston SaberCats. His switch from N8 to second-row is not based on his height of 1.86 m (6 ft 1 ¼ in). However, he has the weight requirements. More than anything else, it is for the needs of Peñarol who are packed with flanker options, and are adapting to Uruguay’s long-issue of lacking tall-timber.
STAR PLAYER: Readers of ARN will be very familiar with Santiago Arata. He exploded during the RWC 2015-2019 cycle and delivered on our prediction that he would be a talisman at RWC 2019. Those less familiar with Uruguay were given a wake-up call at RWC 2019 where he was outstanding, scoring a brilliant try against Fiji and proving himself to be world-class against Wales. This caught the attention of European clubs which sees him joining Castres following the SLAR season and mi-year internationals.
SMART SIGNING: Uruguay’s longstanding fight to identity tall-timber meant that Peñarol would need to find players from abroad for the second-row. Both Ignacio Dotti and Manuel Leindekar are tall men, yet they play as professionals in the USA and France respectively. Enter South African Louis Conradie. His performance in the warm-up against Corinthians underlined how precise Peñarol had got their recruitment. Conradie looms as Mr. Reliable for the line-out and is certainly no one-trick-pony.
ONE TO WATCH: Peñarol are packed with Uruguayan internationals. These also include players back from Major League Rugby and, in the case of Nicolás Freitas, Super Rugby. His time with Jaguares may not have seen minutes on the field, yet he is a brilliant player. One to watch for that readers may not be familiar with is Maxime Sonneveld. The 20-year-old flanker is uncapped, yet is a certain Tero in the immediate future. He was outstanding for the u20s and impressed at senior level for Peñarol vs Corinthians. His defense, offense and breakdown work make him an outstanding talent for Uruguay.
OUTLOOK: Peñarol has an excellent player roster. The team is likely to be a title contender and enter the inaugural season as the no 2 seed, behind Los Ceibos. The team has been preparing extremely well and has the best facilities of all SLAR teams. Do not be surprised to see Peñarol doing more than reaching the final.
For further information click here to access the ARN Súper Liga Americana de Rugby page.
