Preview: Uruguay vs Spain

Uruguay play host to Spain on Friday. The match is second two of a two match-series in Montevideo. Los Leones were 32-20 winners in the first match. The outcome affected rankings; Spain improved two places in the World Rankings.

Uruguay’s team for game two is consistent. The only changes comes at hooker with Guillermo Pujadas replacing Facundo Gattas. The change would appear to be an effort to improve the line out. Pujadas did have a better performance in this area than Gattas in game one.

Guillermo Lijtenstein again starts ahead of Ignacio Rodríguez at scrum-half. He will again be the one back who did not go to RWC 2019. They were dangerous in game one, but lacked comparable opportunity as Los Leones; the forwards were dominant.

There is one further change to the team. It sees forward Lorenzo Surraco dropping out of the 23. His spot on the replacements goes to winger José Irlueguy. This sees the bench having a standard formation of five forwards and three backs. It was a six-two formation for game one.

Spain won game one up front. Los Leones were on top in the forwards. This was true both in the set-piece and in general play. Unsurprisingly, Head Coach Santiago Santos has rewarded his players. His team for Friday’s match sees thirteen players retained.

Fernando López will captain the side at loose head prop. He replaces José Díaz who started on Sunday. The remaining forwards are unchanged. Vicente del Hoyo, and Andrés Alvorado join López in the front-row; Manu Mora, and Victor Sánchez will lock the scrum and Matt Foulds, Fred Quercy, and Afa Tauli will be the starting back-row.

There is also one change in the backs. It comes at scrum-half with Facundo Munilla replacing Kerman Aurrekoetxea. Munilla played for the Olímpia Lions in the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby. The Argentine duo of Bautista Guemes, and Ignacio Contardi will again play inside center and right wing respectively.

Changes to the bench see Leandro Wosniak, Daniel Barranco and Oier Goia included. None of them played in the first match. Wosniak is uncapped. Michael Hogg, Gonzalo Vinuesa, José Díaz, Gabriel Vélez, Diego Periel, and Pablo Ortiz miss out.

There have been thirteen prior test matches between Uruguay, and Spain. The first was won by Spain 16-8 in 1987. Since then the teams have split the results, winning six each.

Spain won the two most recent matches. They were a 41-21 win in 2019 and Sunday’s 32-20 victory. Uruguay underperformed on both occasions.

A win in game two will see Los Teros retaining 17th position in the world rankings. A loss will see a fall to 18th place.

The Uruguayans were very displeased with their performance on Sunday. It follows an underwhelming campaign in the South American 4 Nations. Can they turn it around against Spain in game two?ARN projects a narrow Uruguayan victory by 3 points.

 

TEAMS

URUGUAY
1 Matías Benítez, 2 Guillermo Pujadas, 3 Diego Arbelo, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Juanjuan Garese, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Guillermo Lijtenstein, 10 Felipe Etcheverry, 11 Rodrigo Silva, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt.), 13 Nicolás Freitas, 14 Federico Favaro, 15 Gastón Mieres

Replacements: 16 Facundo Gattas, 17 Mateo Perillo, 18 Ignacio Peculo, 19 Leandro Segredo, 21 Eric Dosantos, 21 Ignacio Rodríguez, 22 José Iruleguy, 23 Agustín Della Corte

SPAIN
1 Fernando López, 2 Vicente del Hoyo, 3 Andrés Alvorado, 4 Manu Mora, 5 Victor Sánchez, 6 Matt Foulds, 7 Fred Quercy, 8 Afa Tauli, 9 Kerman Aurrekoetxea, 10 David Melé, 11 Julen Goia (capt.), 12 Bautista Guemes, 13 Andrea Rabago, 14 Ignacio Contardi, 15 Richard Stewart

Replacements: 16 Leandro Wosniak, 17 Steve Barnes, 18 Joel Merkler, 19 Michael Walker-Fitton, 20 Oier Goia, 21 Facundo Munilla, 22 Daniel Barranco, 23 Baltazar Taibo

Date: Friday, November 06
Kick-Off: 7pm (Montevideo), 11pm (Madrid)
Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo