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Brazil is reluctant to include foreigners in the country’s Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) team. Instead, the team may exclusively be Brazilian. The only players not from Brazil will be players who have played for Brazil or may do so in 2021.
Starting in March, the 2021 SLAR season will be a six team league. Each team is from a different country. In addition to Brazil’s side the five other are Los Cafeterros Pro (Colombia), Los Ceibos (Argentina), Olímpia Lions (Paraguay) Peñarol (Uruguay), (Selknam) Chile.
Brazil’s team in 2020 was Corinthians. Whether or not the team will play under that name or not remains undetermined; the CBRu is currently determining this very issue in addition to others.
The reluctance to include foreigners who are not eligible to play for Brazil. The reason being that the CBRu wants SLAR to produce more players to play for Brazil.
Los Cafeteros have 10 Argentine players and there are expected to be more. The final 30-man roster is estimated at containing 18 Colombians and 12 Argentines. If there are indeed two additional Argentine players, they will be contracted rather than drafted.
The 2020 Corinthians roster was exclusively made-up of players from or eligible to play for Brazil. The team’s one match was a 45-14 loss against Peñarol. The Uruguayan team that day included Obert Nortje (Namibia), Louis Conradie, and Bradley Thain (South Africa), and Raffaele Storti (Portugal). The roster also contained plays from Argentina, Colombia Fiji, Tonga and the USA.
Selknam’s 2020 roster included five players from Argentina, one from Fiji and two from Tonga. Brazil was outplayed by both Chile and Uruguay in the 2020 South American Four Nations and also on tour against Portugal.
Sources have told Americas Rugby News that 27 members of the 2020 Corinthians roster will play for Brazil’s team in 2021. This does mean that there is technically room for three Argentine players. However, as noted this route is not considered appropriate by the management.
