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After a long wait the Olímpia Lions make their home professional rugby debut appearance on Sunday. The Paraguayan SLAR franchise will be up against the SLAR 2021 runners-up, Peñarol. With Selknam having handed Los Jaguares XV their first defeat a Peñarol win in Paraguay will be sufficient to move the Uruguayan franchise to top spot of SLAR 2022.
The Olímpia Lions have named a physical line-up to battle Peñarol. Ignacio Gandini, Federico Simondi and Mariano Romanini are all hard-hitting defenders and rampaging ball-carriers. The Argentine trio form the Olímpia Lions back-row.
The front-five will consist of three Paraguayans and two Argentines. Props Daniel Cabral, Luis Enrique Quinteros, and second-rower Mariano Garcete will be joined by Argentines Lorenzo Colidio, and Mariano Muntaner.
Ignacio Inchauspe, and Sebastián Urbieta form the halves. Both players also featured for the Olímpia Lions in SLAR 2021 as did Francisco Díez who will start at outside center. The remainder of the backline are new and there is a notable selection of former Pumitas scrum-half Matías Sauze on the left wing.
Peñarol’s line-up is Uruguayan-centric. Fourteen of the starting XV are Uruguayans and all are playing to press for selection for Rugby World Cup 2023.
The front-row has esablished names Juan Echeverría, Guillermo Pujadas, and Ignacio Peculo. Behind them will be two flankers who, based on Uruguayan needs, have been used a lot in the second-row in the past. Of them Eric Dosantos starts again while Diego Magno will have his first SLAR start.
Manuel Ardao contintinues his move around the back-row. He started at flanker and N8 in the opening two rounds and moves back to flanker for round three. The uncapped Carlos Deus will have the opportunity of starting at N8 while veteran Santiago Civetta als starts in the back-row.
Tomás Inciarte continues at scrum-half. He rotated between scrum-half and outside center in SLAR 2021. His halves partner againsr the Olímpia Lions will be Nicolás Roger. The former Cafeteros Pro player will wear the shirt that his brother, Martín Roger, held throughout the SLAR 2021 season.
Veteran Teros Rodrigo Silva, and Andrés Vilaseca both start in the backs as do Felipe Arcos Pérez, Bautista Basso, and Felipe Etcheverry.
Both prior meetings between the teams took place in SLAR 2021. Peñarol were 40-11 winners in Santiago and 29-10 winners in Montevideo. Regardless of the outcome of the third game between the sides, it will be historic with Paraguay hosting Olímpia Lions for the first time.
TEAMS
OLÍMPIA LIONS
1 Daniel Cabral, 2 Mariano Muntaner, 3 Luis Enrique Quinteros, 4 Lorenzo Colidio, 5 Mariano Garcete, 6 Federico Simondi, 7 Ignacio Gandini (capt.), 8 Mariano Romanini, 9 Ignacio Inchauspe, 10 Sebastián Urbieta, 11 Matías Sauze, 12 Estanislao Arrias, 13 Francisco Díez, 14 Julián Quetglas, 15 Diego Walter
Replacements: 16 Emilio Gorostiaga, 17 Ezequiel Reyes, 18 Estefano Aranda, 19 Agustín Toth, 20 Ariel Nuñez, 21 Facundo Villalba, 22 Nicolás Hogg, 23 Juan González
PEÑAROL
1 Juan Echeverría, 2 Guillermo Pujadas, 3 Ignacio Peculo, 4 Eric Dosantos, 5 Diego Magno, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Carlos Deus, 9 Tomás Inciarte, 10 Nicolás Roger, 11 Rodrigo Silva, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt.), 13 Felipe Arcos Pérez, 14 Bautista Basso, 15 Felipe Etcheverry
Replacements: 16 Emiliano Faccennini, 17 Mathias Franco, 18 Mateo Perillo, 19 Nahuel Milan, 20 Tomás Etcheverry, 21 Francisco Suárez, 22 Santiago Álvarez, 23 Baltazar Amaya
Date: Sunday, April 11
Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo
Kickoff: 4:00pm (Asunción); 5:00pm (Montevideo)
Referee: Damian Schneider (Argentina)
Assistant Referees: Nehuen Jauri Rivero (Argentina); Cauã Ricardo (Brazil)
TMO: Tomás Bertazza (Argentina)
Broadcast: ESPN America Latina, ESPN Brasil, Star +
Historical Results:
2021-04-11 – Peñarol 29, Olímpia Lions 10 (Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo, Uruguay)
2021-03-16 – Olímpia Lions 11, Peñarol 40 (Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile)
