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Os Cobras take-on the Olímpia Lions on Thursday. The match-up is a round three match in the 2021 Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR). It will be the second match for the Brazilian franchise and the third for the Paraguayan team.
The team selections are notably different to those from round two. Os Cobras have selected close to the genuine Brazilian test team for this match. It sees Juan Román González as the only Argentine starting. The other fourteen starting players are capped by Brazil; indeed, a similar line-up minus González is plausible for the RWC 2023 qualifiers.
The seven starting backs have a total of 186 caps. Such a scenario was simply impossible in years gone by. Only Moisés Duque was capped before RWC 2015. He now has 57 caps.
Os Cobras have named a notable list of replacements. There are further Brazilian test players in addition to two Argentine players. They are Franco Giudice, and Marcos de Sanctis. Former Major League Rugby player, Arthur Bergo is also on the bench.
The Oímpia Lions continue to be dominated by Argentine players; however, the team to face Os Cobras does give more Paraguayans opportunities. Martín Sitjar will get a first start for the Olímpia Lions at loose head. In addition, Renato Cardona will play on the left wing and Sebastián Urbieta will play at fly half.
The Olímpia Lions were set to play host to Corinthians Rugby in 2020. The Brazilian team had arrived in Asunción and days before the match plans were arranged for it to be played behind closed doors. Instead, the fixture was cancelled. This prevented the first ever professional rugby match between teams from Praguay and Brazil being played in the 2020 SLAR.
In their prior matches thus far, the Olímpia Lions fell to losses against Peñarol and Selknam. The Paraguayan side was strong early-on against Peñarol and competitive thorughout against Selknam. Os Cobras finished with a bonus point against Peñarol. It came through two late tries well after the result was secured for the Uruguayan franchise. In short, the prior scorelines are slight rather than strong indicators. ARN projects a very close match; one that could go either way.
Kickoff is set for 4:30pm local time, 4:30pm, Asunción and Brasilia, and 2:30pm Bogotá. Live broadcasts will be provided by ESPN in the competing countries.
COBRAS
1 Caique Silva, 2 Yan Rosetti, 3 Juan Román González, 4 Cléber Días, 5 Gabriel Paganini, 6 Adrio Melo, 7 Matheus Claudio, 8 André Arruda, 9 Felipe Cunha, 10 Josh Reeves, 11 Daniel Lima, 12 Moisés Duque, 13 Felipe Sancery (capt.), 14 Robert Tenorio, 15 Daniel Sancery
Replacements: 16 Endy Willian, 17 Brendon Alves Pinheiro, 18 Jardel Vettorato, 19 Alexandre Alves, 20 Arthur Bergo, 21 Douglas Rauth, 22 Franco Giudice, 23 Marcos de Sanctis
OLÍMPIA LIONS
1 Martín Sitjar, 2 Axel Zapata, 3 Rodrigo Martínez, 4 Carlos Repetto, 5 Mauro Rebussone, 6 Jerónimo Gómez Vara, 7 Lucas Santa Cruz, 8 Ignacio Gandini, 9 Joaquín Pellandini, 10 Sebastián Urbieta, 11 Renato Cardona, 12 Franco Bullentini, 13 Francisco Diez, 14 Leopoldo Herrera, 15 Martín Bogado
Replacements: 16 Mariano Muntaner, 17 Javier Díaz, 18 Lucas Favre, 19 Mariano Garcete, 20, Marcos Riquelme, 21, Ignacio Inchauspe, 22 Máximo Ledesma, 23 Diego Argaña
Date: Thursday, March 25
Venue: Estadio Elías Figueroa, Valparaiso, Chile
Kickoff: 16:30 (Santiago), 14:30am (Bogotá)
Broadcast: ESPN Brasil, ESPN America Latina
Historical Results:
N/A
