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Season three of the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) has arrived. Opening the new season will be an Atlantic battle as Peñarol and Os Cobras battle-it-out in the season opener.
Peñarol have a line-up containing many players who helped Uruguay qualify for RWC 2023. Like Los Teros, Peñarol are captained by Andrés Vilaseca from inside center. He will play outside Felipe Etcheverry who was the fly half in the decisive win over the USA. Right winger Federico Favaro will kick the goals.
Nahuel Milan is the one foreigner in Peñarol’s 23 to face Os Cobras. He will lock the scrum together with Eric Dosantos, a player who is usually a flanker. Injury to Manuel Diana sees Lucas Bianchi starting at flanker and Manuel Ardao playing at the back of the scrum.
Peñarol have the luxury of naming the highly-promising Baltazar Amaya on the bench. He is to be joined by SLAR rookies Emiliano Faccenini, Diego Magno, Juan Manuel Tafernaberry, and Bautista Basso. Magno is the Americas’ most capped player of all-time with 97 caps. He returned to Uruguay for SLAR 2022 from the Houston SaberCats in Major League Rugby.
The future is now for Os Cobras. There is youth throughout the line-up including the front-row of Alexandre Alves, Leonardo de Souza, and Joel Ramírez, and center Joel Santos. The development of all is a goal moving forward as Brazil’s ultimate goal continues to be to qualify for a Men’s Rugby World Cup.
Veterans Cleber Días, and Gabriel Paganini will lock the scrum. Lucas Tranquez continues to be used as a utility player. He is not at fullback, wing or center against Peñarol; instead, he will play fly half. Fellow Brazilian test players Douglas Rauth, Daniel Lima, Robert Tenorio, and Daniel Sancery also all start in the backs.
The backline will contain new centers. Joel Santos, and Simon Bienvenu will both make their debuts. The latter is a former player for Racing 92 in the Top 14. Former Utah Warrior, Arthur Bergo captains the side from flanker. His battle agaisnt Lucas Bianchi is the ARN feature match-up of the contest.
There have been two prior SLAR meetings between the teams as well as a third match between the Uruguayan and Brazilian SLAR entrants. Peñarol has won every match thus far. Peñarol won the 2021 contests 33-24 and 40-12 and defeated Cotinthians 45-14 in a 2020 season warm-up fixture.
TEAMS
PEÑAROL
1 Juan Echeverría, 2 Guillermo Pujadas, 3 Ignacio Peculo, 4 Eric Dosantos, 5 Nahuel Milan, 6 Lucas Bianchi, 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Manuel Ardao, 9 Tomás Inciarte, 10 Felipe Etcheverry, 11 Mateo Viñals, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt,), 13 Felipe Arcos Perez, 14 Federico Favaro, 15 Rodrigo Silva
Replacements: 16 Emiliano Faccenini, 17 Mateo Perillo, 18 Matías Benítez, 19 Diego Magno, 20 Carlos Deus, 21 Juan Manuel Tafernaberry, 22 Bautista Basso, 23 Baltazar Amaya
OS COBRAS BRASIL XV
1 Alexandre Alves, 2 Leonardo de Souza, 3 Joel Ramírez, 4 Cleber Días, 5 Gabriel Paganini, 6 Arthur Bergo (capt.), 7 Devon Muller, 8 Matheus Cláudio, 9 Douglas Rauth, 10 Lucas Tranquez, 11 Daniel Lima, 12 Joel Santos, 13 Simon Bienvenu, 14 Robert Tenorio, 15 Daniel Sancery
Replacements: 16 Endy Willian Pinheiro, 17 Henrique Ferreira, 18 Mariano Filomeno, 19 Gabriel Oliveira, 20 Adrio de Melo, 21 Laurent Bourda-Couhet, 22 Victor Souza, 23 Robson Morais
Date: Sunday, March 09
Venue: Estadio Elías Figueroa Brander, Valparaíso
Kickoff: 12:00pm (Santiago, Asunción, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Brasília), 10:00am (Bogotá)
Referee: Nehuen Jauri Rivero (Argentina)
Assistant Referees: Tomás Bertazza (Argentina); Nerea Livoni
TMO: Ignacio Calle
Broadcast: ESPN America Latina, ESPN Brasil, Star +
Historical Results:
2021-04-16 – Peñarol 40, Cobras 12 (Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo)
2021-03-16 – Cobras 24, Peñarol 33 (Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile)
2020-02-26 – Peñarol 45, Corinthians 14 (Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo)
