Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Colombia and Paraguay kick-off the 2022 Tri Nations. Los Tucanes will have home advantage against Los Yacares in Barranquilla. The fixture marks the beginning of the new South American B Championship. Brazil join Colombia and Paraguay in the three-team tournament.
Many of the players are reasonably familiar with one-another. Both Colombia and Paraguay will field players who featured in the 2022 Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR). This is true of the captains Jhojan Ortíz and Sebastián Urbieta. They are both to lead from fly half.
Colombia has a team with established names. Veterans Jhon Álvarez, and Santiago Mejía will lock the scrum and SLAR stand-out Diver Ceballos starts at flanker. In the backs there is the notable name of Jhon Arley Urrutia at fullback. He played in SLAR 2021 but not 2022.
A feature battle of Los Tucanes vs Los Yacares will be the scrum. Carlos Angulo, Pablo Llanes, and Aldair Marquez will be up against Daniel Cabral, Emilio Gorostiaga, and Enrique Quinteros. It is this area where Paraguay may well be at their strongest against the Colombians.
Paraguay also has established named elsewhere in the pack. This is true of Mariano Garcete, Carlos Plate, Ariel Núñez, and Marcos Riquelme. Garcete has established himself as a highly consistent performer for the Olímpia Lions.
Colombia’s Cristian Rodellegas had an excellent SLAR 2021 but, like Urrutia did not feature in the 2022 edition. He will be certain to ask questions of Paraguay’s mid-field defense. Paraguay, meanwhile, will be keen to get a lot of ball to Juan González.
Los Yacarés enter the match ranked 47th in the world Colombia is ranked 34th. The outcome of the match will see changes to both competitors. The match will be broadcast in Latin America on Star+.
TEAMS
COLOMBIA
1 Carlos Angulo, 2 Pablo Llanes, 3 Aldair Marquez, 4 Jhon Álvarez, 5 Santiago Mejía, 6 Luis Giraldo, 7 Diver Ceballos, 8 Juan Pacheco, 9 Julián Navarro, 10 Jhojan Ortíz (capt.), 11 Neider García, 12 Cristian Rodellegas, 13 Juan Agudelo, 14 Alain Altahona, 15 Jhon Arley Urrutia
Replacements: 16 Jorge Álvaez, 17 Diego Posada, 18 Brayhan Pérez, 19 Yoimar Mosquera, 20 Nicolás Cadavid, 21 Bryan Guzmán, 22 Alejandro Vanegas, 23 Alvaro Gamarra
PARAGUAY
1 Daniel Cabral, 2 Emilio Gorostiaga, 3 Enrique Quinteros, 4 Ignacio Martínez, 5 Mariano Garcete, 6 Carlos Plate, 7 Ariel Núñez, 8 Marcos Riquelme, 9 Diego Muño, 10 Sebastián Urbieta (capt.), 11 Juan González, 12 Enzo Sander, 13 Juan Chilavert, 14 Elías Sotelo, 15 Arturo López
Replacements: 16 Lucas Otaño, 17 Camilo Blasco, 18 Estéfano Aranda, 19 Álvaro Báez, 20 Mateo Rodríguez, 21 Rafael Bareiro, 22 Héctor Gaseo, 23 Gianfranco Parodi
Date: Saturday, August 20, 2022
Kick-Off: 7:00pm (Bogotá, CO); 8:00pm (Asunción, PY)
Venue: Estadio Romelio Martínez (Barranquilla, CO)
Broadcast: Star +
