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Los Cafeteros Pro and Os Cobras Brasil XV are two teams looking to secure their first win of SLAR 2022. The Colombian franchise is 5th after two rounds on one competition point. The Brazilian side is yet to register a point.
Los Cafeteros Pro will have a new leader. Argentine Javier Corvalán leads the team from loose head prop. He will be in charge of a line-up with gifted players from both Argentina and Colombia. Federico Lavanini starts in the second-row while Colombia’s best player in SLAR 2022, Diver Ceballos continues to hold down a starting spot at flanker.
A notable selection comes at the back of the scrum with Juan Bautista Mernes starting and Felipe Puertas on the bench. Elsewhere in the forwards, Joaquín Sánchez will be another player to watch as he completes the back-row.
The backline again sees the bright spark that is Julián Hernández at fly half. His play-making was of note in the round one match against Los Jaguares XV. Eliseo Morales gets the nod at fullback.
Os Cobras have twelve starting Brazilians (including non-homegrown eligible players), two Argentines and a Frenchman. The Argentines are tight head Mariano Filomeno and fly half Bautista Santamarina. Simon Bienvenu again starts in the centers.
The Brazilian names are similar to that which may play for Os Tupis in a test match against Paraguay, Uruguay or Zimbabwe. Lucas Tranquez moves from fly half to a more familiar role at fullback. Elsewhere Gabriel Oliveira gets a start ahead of Cléber Días in the second-row.
Saturday’s match will be the third fixture between the Colombian and the Brazilian SLAR franchises. The two previous meetings took place as part of SLAR 2021. Os Cobras won the first meeting 30-14 in Chile and the second 22-14 in Uruguay. Like the first two, game three will also be in a neutral country but this time it will be in Paraguay.
TEAMS
CAFETEROS PRO
1 Javier Corvalán (capt.), 2 Alvaro Llaver, 3 Daniel Guttierrez, 4 Gregório Hernández, 5 Federico Lavanini, 6 Joaquín Sánchez, 7 Diver Ceballos, 8 Juan Bautista Mernes, 9 Marcos Amorisa, 10 Julián Hernández, 11 Manuel de Marco, 12 Leonardo Gea, 13 Valentín Fernández, 14 Alain Altahona, 15 Eliseo Morales
Replacements: 16 Boris Wenger, 17 Carlos Reyes, 18 Tomás Bertot, 19 Eliseo Fourcade, 20 Felipe Puertas, 21 Julián Navarro, 22 Manuel Alfaro, 23 Andrés Álvarez
COBRAS
1 Alexandre Alves, 2 Endy Willian Pinheiro, 3 Mariano Filomeno, 4 Gabriel Paganini, 5 Gabriel Oliveira, 6 Devon Muller, 7 Arthur Bergo (capt.), 8 Matheus Cláudio, 9 Douglas Rauth, 10 Bautista Santamarina, 11 Daniel Lima, 12 Joel dos Santos, 13 Simon Bienvenu, 14 Robson de Morais, 15 Lucas Tranquez
Replacements: 16 Leonardo da Silva, 17 Brendon Pinheiro, 18 Henrique Ferreira, 19 Kauã Oliveira, 20 Cléber Días, 21 Laurent Bourda-Couhet, 22 Gabriel Quirino, 23 Sergio Luna
Venue: Héroes de Curupayty (Asunción, Paraguay)
Kickoff: 5:00pm (Asunción, Brasília), 3:00pm (Bogotá)
Referee: Frank Méndez (Chile)
Broadcast: ESPN (America Latina), ESPN (Brazil), Star +
Historical Results:
2021-04-26 – Cobras 22, Cafeteros Pro 14 (Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo)
2021-03-30 – Cobras 30, Cafeteros Pro 14, (Estadio Nacional, Santiago)
