SLAR Preview – Peñarol vs Selknam

Peñarol’s home match against Selknam shapes up as being one of the most important matches of the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) season. Both teams have qualified for the Semi Finals; they are now fighting to avoid facing Los Jaguares in the final four. Peñarol is presently favored to do so; as such, Selknam must win and claim a bonus point on Monday.

The line-ups names are both very close to test teams. It is arguably an early look at the RWC 2023 qualifiers. There are, of course, Argentine players involved for both teams; four for Peñarol and three for Selknam.

Peñarol’s backline lines up as their best of the season. The Argentine pairing of Manuel Nogúes and Martín Roger will play in the halves. Uruguayan captain Andrés Vilaseca will play inside center and be partnered by Nicolás Freitas in the mid-field. Veteran Tero Rodrigo Silva will play on the right wing while the highly promising Baltazar Amaya, and José María Iruleguy join Silva in the back-three.

Selknam’s side sees the smash brothers reuniting as the flankers; Martín Sigren and Ignacio Silva start together with Nicolás Garafulic completing the back-row. It is also going to be an all-Cóndores front-row in the form of  Javier Carrasco, Augusto Bohme, and Matías Dittus. Santiago Portillo is the one Argentine starter in Selknam’s pack.

The Selknam backline matches that of Peñarol. That is to say that there will be Argentine players at scrum-half and fly half with the five other spots going to nationals. Patricio Baronio, and Ignacio Albornoz joins likely Chilean starting 10 in June, Santiago Videla in the inside backs. The in-form Domingo Saavedra will play outside center while Franco Velarde, Matías Garafulic, and Rodrigo Fernández will play as the back-three.

There have been two prior meetings between the teams. Selknam completed an upset win over Peñarol in the inaugural SLAR fixture in 2020. Peñarol then claimed revenge by defeating Selknam in Chile earlier this season.

Selknam has rotated for this match. The Chilean side fielded a number of wider roster members against Los Jaguares XV in their prior match on Wednesday. This decision sees the team better placed than otherwise. This factor combined with Peñarol’s recent performances leads ARN to project an upset win for Selknam by 8 points on Monday.

Kickoff is set for 6:00pm local time, Asunción, Buenos Aires and Brasília; 5:00pm Santiago; and 4pm Bogotá. Live broadcasts will be provided by ESPN in the competing countries.

PEÑAROL
1 Ignacio Peculo, 2 Facundo Gattas, 3 Facundo Pomponio, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Nahuel Milan, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Marcos Chamyan, 8 Santiago Civetta, 9 Manuel Nogúes, 10 Martín Roger, 11 Baltazar Amaya, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt.), 13 Nicolás Freitas, 14 Rodrigo Silva, 15 José María Iruleguy

Replacements: 16 Guillermo Pujadas, 17 Juan Echeverría, 18 Diego Arbelo, 19 Carlos Deus, 20 Conrado Roura, 21 Lucas Bianchi, 22 Tomás Inciarte, 23 Federico Favaro

SELKNAM
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Augusto Bohme, 3 Matías Dittus, 4 Santiago Portillo, 5 Clemente Saavedra, 6 Martín Sigren, 7 Ignacio Silva (capt.), 8 Nicolás Garafulic, 9 Patricio Baronio, 10 Ignacio Albornoz, 11 Franco Velarde, 12 Santiago Videla, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Matías Garafulic, 15 Rodrigo Fernández

Replacements: 16 Tomás Dussaillant, 17 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 18 Salvador Lues, 19 Tomãs Orchard, 20 Bautista Stavile, 21 Lukas Carvallo, 22 José Larenas, 23 Alfonso Escobar

Date: Monday, April 26
Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo
Kickoff: 6:00pm (Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Brasília), 5:00pm (Santiago), 4:00pm (Bogotá)
Referee: Damian Schneider (Argentina)
Broadcast: ESPN 2 (America Latina), ESPN 2 (Brazil)

Historical Results:
2021-03-30 Selknam 22, Peñarol 26 (Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile)
2020-03-04 Peñarol 14, Selknam 13 (Estadio Charrúa, Montvideo, Uruguay)