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Peñarol have home advantage against Os Cobras Brasil XV on Saturday. The round six SLAR fixture sees the competition leaders taking-on the winless Cobras from Brazil. The teams met in round one of the season with the Uruguayans winning a low-scoring contest by nine points in Chile.
Peñarol have opted for minor rotation. It comes in the form of Felipe Arcos Pérez featuring from the bench rather than starting. His place has gone to rookie Bautista Basso who has his first start in the centers. His prior SLAR activity have been on the wing.
Elsewhere in the line-up there are opportunities for Lucas Bianchi at flanker and Tomás Etcheverry on the bench with Santiago Civetta and Diego Magno rested.
Fourteen of the starting fifteen are Uruguayans. The one Argentine starter is Nahuel Milan in the second-row. The second Argentine in the 23 is Nicolás Roger who is again the understudy to Felipe Etcheverry at fly half. Etcheverry missed SLAR 2021 though injury. He has been a stand-out for Peñarol in SLAR 2022.
Os Cobras have a new leader. Daniel Sancery will lead the side from fullback while Arthur Bergo is out of the 23 altogether. Sancery starts with Lucas Tranquez dropping to the bench. The backs are otherwise a continuation of Os Cobras‘ SLAR 2022.
Bautista Santamarina and Simon Bienvenu again start. They are the two foreigners in the match day 23. That, is players who are not from Brazil nor eligible to play for Brazil. Sancery and Devon Muller are instances of Brazilian test players who were produced abroad.
Muller will form a back-row trio with André Arruda and Matheus Cláudio. Both men have been in fine form for Os Cobras this year and also excelled in SLAR 2021. Cléber Días, and Gabriel Paganini will continue in the second-row while Enrique Ribeiro will have an opportunity to start at tight head.
The replacements see a return for Lucas Spago. He will cover fly half and be joined by Lucas Tranquez and debutant Rafael Spago among the replacement backs.
Peñarol enter the match as the heavy favorites. The team is packed with players that are on the radar for RWC 2023. Os Cobras’ mission to end get their first win of SLAR 2022 will likely live on for another week.
TEAMS
PENAROL
1 Juan Echeverría, 2 Guillermo Pujadas, 3 Ignacio Peculo, 4 Eric Dosantos, 5 Nahuel Milan, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Lucas Bianchi, 8 Carlos Deus, 9 Tomás Inciarte, 10 Felipe Etcheverry, 11 Baltazar Amaya, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt.), 13 Bautista Basso, 14 Mateo Viñals, 15 Rodrigo Silva
Replacements: 16 Emiliano Faccennini, 17 Matías Benítez, 18 Matías Franco, 19 Tomás Etcheverry, 20 Francisco Suarez, 21 Juan Manuel Tafernaberry, 22 Nicolás Roger, 23 Felipe Arcos Pérez
COBRAS
1 Alexandre Alves, 2 Endy Willian Pinheiro, 3 Enrique Ribeiro, 4 Cléber Días, 5 Gabriel Paganini, 6 Devon Muller, 7 Matheus Cláudio, 8 André Arruda, 9 Douglas Rauth, 10 Bautista Santamarina, 11 Daniel Lima, 12 Joel dos Santos, 13 Simon Bienvenu, 14 Robert Tenório, 15 Daniel Sancery (capt.)
Replacements: 16 Leonardo Souza, 17 Brendon Alves, 18 Joel Ramírez, 19 Gabriel Oliveira, 20 Adrio Luiz, 21 Rafael Spago, 22 Lucas Spago, 23 Lucas Tranquez
Date: Saturday, April 23, 2022
Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo, Uruguay
Kickoff: 9:00pm (Montevideo, Brasília)
Referee: Frank Méndez (Chile)
Assistant Referees: Simón Larrubia (Argentina); Juan Manuel León
TMO: Damian Schneider (Argentina)
Broadcast: ESPN America Latina, ESPN Brasil, Star +
HISTORICAL RESULTS
2022-03-13 – Cobras 10, Peñarol 19 (Estadio Elías Figueroa Brander, Valparaíso, Chile)
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)
