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At long last; professional rugby comes to Brazil. The overdue first home match for Brazil’s team, Os Cobras will be a Brazil vs Argentina clash with the Los Pampas the visiting team in São Paulo. SLAR 2020-2022 matches were in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Os Cobras open the season with a team centered around the Brazilian test side. Gabriel Paganini leads a team with twelve starting Brazilians. Levy Marinho, Endy Willian Pinheiro, and Henrique Ferreira make-up the front-row and Adrio de Melo, Matheus Claudio and André Arruda the back-row.
The backline sees Douglas Rauth and Lucas Tranquez in tandem. They are Josh Reeves’ preferred halves for Os Tupis. Winger Daniel Lima will play at fullback with Ariel Rodrigues, and Robert Tenório both also starting.
The international names on the run-on XV come from Argentina and Colombia. Lucio Anconetani starts in the second-row and Nicolás Cantarutti will play outside center. Both players have played for the Argentina XV.
Colombian Alain Altahona will start ont he right wing. He will be the first Colombian to play for Brazil’s team. A second will be waiting in the wings; Diver Ceballos has been named on the bench.
The Buenos Aires franchise has a team that could very easily play as the Argentina XV. While there are no capped players, the line-up is loaded with next-of-XV and u20’s stars. There is even a Clermont connection as the younger brothers of Tomás Lavanini and Bautista Delguy will both start against Os Cobras.
Both Federico Lavanini and Iñaki Delguy featured in SLAR 2022. Lavanini was at Cafeteros Pro and Delguy at Jaguares XV. Lavanini will lock the scrum alongside Lorenzo Colidio who played for the Olímpia Lions. They are joined by the highly promising Nicolás D’amorim, Manuel Bernstein, and Santiago Ruiz as the back-row trio.
Delguy is one of three speed-merchants in the back-three. Jerónimo Ulloa, and Juan Ignacio Landó are both very young and very fast. They will latch on to any opportunities created for them and may create some all by themsleves.
Juan Pablo Castro will captain the side from inside center. He will be joined in the mid-field by Los Pumas 7’s player Felipe de la Vega and former MLR player Joaquín de la Vega Mendía. Scrum-half Rafael Iriarte and Delguy are the Pampas backs from Jaguares XV 2022.
Os Cobras and Los Pampas have never met previously, though the Argentine team is, in effect, a name change rather than a new side. All prior SLAR matches between Os Cobras and Los Jaguares XV were all won by the Argentine side. The most recent saw Los Jaguares XV winning 84-15.
The final Jagaures XV vs Cobras match included Bautista Bernasconi, Ignacio Ruíz, Mayco Vivas, Pedro Rubiolo, Gerónimo Prisciantelli, Ignacio Mendy, and Martín Bogado. They now all play in elite leagues in England, France, Italy, and New Zealand.
São Paulo is forecast to be hit by heavy rain from Friday throguh Sunday. Whether this will affect the style of play or not remains to be seen. It will keep the temperatures down below the highs that would otherwise be the case in the tropics. The match will be covered live by ESPN in both Brazil and Argentina.
COBRAS
1 Levy Marinho, 2 Endy Willian Pinheiro, 3 Henrique Ferreira, 4 Lucio Anconetani, 5 Gabriel Paganini (capt.), 6 Adrio de Melo, 7 Matheus Claudio, 8 André Arruda, 9 Douglas Rauth, 10 Lucas Tranquez, 11 Alain Altahona, 12 Robert Tenório, 13 Nicolás Cantarutti, 14 Ariel Rodrigues, 15 Daniel Lima
Replacements: 16 Leonardo Silva, 17 Brendon Alves, 18 Bautista Vidal, 19 Ben Donald, 20 Cleber Dias, 21 Diver Ceballos, 22 Felipe Gonçalves, 23 Lucas Spago
PAMPAS
1 Miguel Prince, 2 Ramiro Gurovich, 3 Javier Coronel, 4 Lorenzo Colidio, 5 Federico Lavanini, 6 Nicolás D’amorim, 7 Manuel Bernstein, 8 Santiago Ruiz, 9 Rafael Iriarte, 10 Joaquín de la Vega Mendía, 11 Iñaki Delguy, 12 Felipe de la Vega, 13 Juan Pablo Castro (capt.), 14 Jerónimo Ulloa, 15 Juan Ignacio Landó
Replacements: 16- Rodrigo Pérez Boulan, 17 Javier Corvalán, 18 Martín Villar, 19 Rodrigo Fernández Criado, 20 Jerónimo Ureta, 21 Mateo Albanese, 22 Tomás Suárez Folch, 23 Benjamín Elizalde
Date: Sunday, February 19
Kick-Off: 3pm (CL)
Venue: Estádio Nicolau Alayon, São Paulo (BR)
Referee: Nehuén Jauri Rivero (AR)
Assistant Referees: Lucas Saccomano (BR); Simón Larrubia (AR)
TMO: Marcelo Pilara (AR)
HISTORIC RESULTS
N/A
