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Uruguay will be close to full-strength for their final match of 2021. Los Teros take-on Italy to conclude what has been a busy, and highly successful, year. The South Americans face Italy in a much-awaited test match. They do so with senior players Mateo Sanguinetti, Manuel Leindekar, Germán Kessler, and Agustín Ormaechea joining the roster.
The match is the third of three games in November. Uruguay started with a test match against Romania in Verona. From there they faced Italy ‘A’ in a non-capped contest this past Sunday. The final match will serve as a preview of the historic clash between the teams at RWC 2023.
Uruguay qualified for RWC 2023 as Americas 1. Los Teros did so by firstly going undefeated in the South American qualifiers and secondly by defeating the USA in a two match series on aggregate.
The team for the qualifiers was Uruguay’s first-choice line-up. The team for the matches thus far in November has been understrength. Santiago Arata will miss the match as will the injured Felipe Berchesi and Ignacio Dotti.
Mateo Sanguinetti, Manuel Leindekar, Germán Kessler and Agustín Ormaechea all play their rugby outside of Uruguay. They missed the match against Romania despite it being played during the World Rugby release window. This was a reflection of arrangements made in order to have them play in the RWC qualifiers which fell outside of the window.
Italy will host Uruguay at the home of United Rugby Championship (URC) side Zebre. Saturday’s test match will kick-off at 10am Uruguayan time.
