Americas Rugby Trophy – Chile XV vs Canada ‘A’ – ARN Guide

Chile will round out their Americas Rugby Trophy as Canada begins theirs in Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil, on Friday. Though both teams will in fact compete under their ‘next senior’ banners and world ranking points will not be on the line, each has chosen to field lineups of near test strength.

Pablo Lemoine’s charges showed vulnerability in defense against the Brazil XV on Sunday, but produced more than enough offense to come away with a 57-36 victory in searing heat. Four changes are made to the run-on side, two each among the forwards and backs.

Diego Escobar takes over at hooker from Tomás Dussaillant, with Augusto Böhme taking a spot among the replacements. Santiago Edwards drops out of the match day squad with Raimundo Martínez coming in on the flank and the bench reverting to a conventional 5/3 split.

At scrumhalf it’s the youngster Lukas Carvallo who gets the call, with Marcelo Torrealba dropping to the reserves. Matías Garafulic moves from the left wing to outside center, with brother Nicolás Garafulic taking up the vacancy out wide.

The Canadians haven’t suited up together since July and will lean heavily on the experience of co-captains Lucas Rumball and Ben LeSage. Josh Larsen and Kyle Baillie provide further leadership up front but there is a younger backline behind them.

Cooper Coats keeps his spot as a starter but will wear the No10 shirt for the first time at international level. Josh Thiel returns to test contention after a four-year injury-riddled hiatus, and the uncapped Josiah Morra starts on the wing along with fellow Canada Sevens representative David Richard.

Scattered showers will lead into the match but sunny skies are expected by game time. Chilean rugby is on a high at the moment with four straight victories including the famous test win over the USA that secured a first-ever spot in the World Cup. Meanwhile fortunes are near polar-opposites for Canada. The South Americans enter as clear favorites.

Kickoff is set for 4pm local time, 3pm Eastern, noon Pacific. Live broadcasts will be available on Star Plus in South America and on the Brazil Rugby YouTube page.

CHILE XV
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Diego Escobar, 3 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 4 Clemente Saavedra, 5 Javier Eissmann, 6 Raimundo Martínez, 7 Ignacio Silva, 8 Alfonso Escobar, 9 Lukas Carvallo, 10 Rodrigo Fernández, 11 Nicolás Garafulic, 12 José Ignacio Larenas (capt.), 13 Matías Garafulic, 14 Cristóbal Game, 15 Santiago Videla

Replacements: 16 Augusto Böhme, 17 Sebastián Otero, 18 Lucas Bordigoni, 19 Santiago Pedrero, 20 Joaquín Milesi, 21 Marcelo Torrealba, 22 Pablo Casas, 23 Diego Warnken

CANADA ‘A’
1 Liam Murray, 2 Andrew Quattrin, 3 Tyler Rowland, 4 Josh Larsen, 5 Conor Keys, 6 Kyle Baillie, 7 Lucas Rumball (co-capt.), 8 Corey Thomas, 9 Ross Braude, 10 Cooper Coats, 11 Josiah Morra, 12 Josh Thiel, 13 Ben LeSage (co-capt.), 14 David Richard, 15 Robbie Povey

Replacements: 16 Lindsey Stevens, 17 Emerson Prior, 18 Conor Young, 19 Callum Botchar, 20 Matt Klimchuk, 21 Jason Higgins, 22 Gabe Casey, 23 Alex Russell

Date: Friday, October 21
Venue: Estádio Nogueira, Mogi das Cruzes
Kickoff: 16:00 local (12:00 Pacific, 15:00 Eastern)
Broadcasts: Star Plus, YouTube