Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
The Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) continues on Tuesday. The fourth round of the season begins with Os Cobras Brasil XV taking on Los Cafeteros Pro. The match will be a first ever professional rugby match between teams from Brazil and Colombia.
Os Cobras will run on to the field with thirteen Brazilian test players. The remaining two are Argentine players; tight head Alejandro Luna and winger Marcos di Santis. Luna returns to join Yan Rosetti and Caique Silva in the starting front-row. di Sanctis will form a new-look back-three. Daniel Sancery moves from fullback to the left wing while Lucas Tranquez will make his SLAR debut at fullback.
The line-up features five changes from the side that lost against the Olímpia Lions on Thursday. Four of them are the aforemented names: Luna, Daniel Sancery, di Sanctis and Tranquez. The remaining change comes at scrum-half with Felipe Cunha making way for Laurent Bourda-Couhet.
Los Cafeteros Pro go into the game with an eight-seven formation. That is to say that the starting line-up will contain eight Colombians and seven Argentines. The front-row will be exclusively Colombian. Yani Pérez, Jorge Álvarez, and Brayan Pérez will be up front with Argentines Lautaro Simes, and Ramiro Tallone locking the scrum. Aníbal Panceyra Garrido, and Felipe Puertas start on the flanks with Colombian Gersón Ortíz starting at N8.
Argentine scrum-half Gonzalo García will again captain Los Cafeteros Pro. He will play inside Andrés Álvarez; the Colombian replaces Nicolás Roger. Additional Colombians in the backs include center Jhojan Ortíz, and wingers Alejandro Navarro, and Jhon Arley Urrutia.
Os Cobras are desperate for a win. The team and supporters alike were very disappointed with Thursday’s performance against the Olímpia Lions. Beating Los Cafeteros Pro is an absolute must for the Brazilian franchise. Meanwhile, the Colombians are also chasing their first victory. As former Brazilian Head Coach Rodolfo Ambrosio knows the ins and the outs of Os Cobras. In short, he gives the Colombians proven inside knowledge.
The rugby played thus far indicates that either side could come out on top. On the one hand, the best rugby shown by Os Cobras has been above that of the best of Los Cafeteros Pro thus far. On the other hand, the worst of Os Cobras has been below the worst of Los Cafeteros Pro. ARN projects a Cobras win by 4 points.
Kickoff is set for 13:00pm local time, 13:00 Brasília, and 11:00 Bogotá. Live broadcasts will be provided by ESPN in the competing countries.
TEAMS
COBRAS
1 Caique Silva, 2 Yan Rosetti, 3 Alejandro Luna, 4 Cléber Días, 5 Gabriel Paganini, 6 Adrio de Melo, 7 Matheus Claúdio, 8 André Arruda, 9 Laurent Bourda-Couhet, 10 Joshua Reeves, 11 Daniel Sancery, 12 Moisés Duque, 13 Felipe Sancery (capt.), 14 Marcos di Sanctis, 15 Lucas Tranquez
Replacements: 16 Leonardo Souza, 17 Leonel Moreno, 18 Matheus Rocha, 19 Alexandre Alves, 20 Arthur Bergo, 21 Felipe Gonçalves, 22 Lucas Spago, 23 Franco Guidice
CAFETEROS PRO
1 Yani Pérez, 2 Jorge Álvarez, 3 Brayan Pérez, 4 Lautaro Simes, 5 Ramiro Tallone, 6 Aníbal Panceyra Garrido, 7 Felipe Puertas, 8 Gersón Ortíz, 9 Gonzalo García (capt.), 10 Andrés Álvarez, 11 Alejandro Navarro, 12 Jhojan Ortíz, 13 Tomás García, 14 Jhon Arley Urrutia, 14 Facundo Ferrario
Replacements: 16 Agustín Acosta, 17 Javier Corvalán, 18 Diego Posada, 19 Jhon Carlos Álvarez, 20 Sebastián Zapata, 21 Oscar Ferrero, 22 Cristian Rodallegas, 23 Julián Velandia
Date: Tuesday, March 30
Venue: Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile
Kickoff: 13:00 (Santiago), 13:00 Brasília, 11:00 (Bogotá)
Referee: Frank Méndez (Chile)
Broadcast: ESPN Brasil, ESPN America Latina
Historical Results:
N/A
