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The Súper Liga America de Rugby (SLAR) 2022 champions, Peñarol get their Super Rugby Americas 2023 season underway on Friday. The Uruguayans will have home advantage against the American Raptors. The visitors from Colorado are coming-off an opening round defeat against Selknam in Chile.
For 2023 Peñarol have a new leader. The 2022 SLAR MVP Manuel Ardao is now captaining the Uruguayan team. Former captain Andrés Vilaseca now plays his rugby in France. Ardao will lead Peñarol from the side of the scrum. He is to be joined by fellow test matchers Lucas Bianchi and Manuel Diana in the back-row.
The front-row of Matías Benítez, Guillermo Pujadas, and Ignacio Peculo are all capped, but are in for a fight for RWC places. Former NOLA Gold player Ignacio Dotti will make his debut for Peñarol alongside Felipe Aliaga in the second-row. Aliaga missed SLAR 2022 due to injury.
The backline is notably different to that from 2022. Santiago Álvarez starts at scrum-half with Tomás Inciarte playing outside center. Juan Manuel Alonso is back from Brive to play on the left wing and Juan Andrés Zuccarino i back from Selknam to play inside center. Alfonso Silva will make his professional debut on the right wing while veteran Rodrigo Silva is once again at fullback.
The American Raptors are again led by Mike Grandy. He will lead a pack that contains two Uruguayans. Juan Echeverría and Diego Magno start at tight head prop and flanker respectively.
Grandy’s side has seen several changes to that which fell 45-10 to Selknam. In the forwards they come with Puma Diego Fortuny replacing Sione Fineuikai at hooker, and Diego Magno and Ronan Murphy switching places from N8 and flanker respectively.
Two changes also come to the American Raptors’ back line. Aki Pulu has replaced Cassh Maluia at inside center while Line Latu starts ahead of Puma Ramiro Moyano at fullback.
There are evidently very skilled players on both teams. However, the chances of an affluent contest may not be great. The match may be influenced by the weather. Heavy rain and thunder storms are in the forecast. With Peñarol having named a solid pack, the conditions will favor them more so than the visiting team from Colorado.
Viewers will be able to tune in to the match live on ESPN in both South America and North America. The match itself will be the second between the teams. The American Raptors hosted Peñarol last June. The Uruguayans were 26-10 winners.
TEAMS
PENAROL
1 Matías Benítez, 2 Guillermo Pujadas, 3 Ignacio Peculo, 4 Ignacio Dotti, 5 Felipe Aliaga, 6 Manuel Ardao (capt.), 7 Lucas Bianchi, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Santiago Álvarez, 10 Felipe Etcheverry, 11 Juan Manuel Alonso, 12 Juan Andrés Zuccarino, 13 Tomás Inciarte, 14 Alfonso Silva, 15 Rodrigo Silva
Replacements: 16 Emiliano Faccennini, 17 Mateo Perillo, 18 Diego Arbelo, 19 Agustín Morales, 20 Carlos Deus, 21 Juan Francisco Torres, 22 Guillermo Juan Storace, 23 Santiago del Cerro
AMERICAN RAPTORS
1 Ma’ake Muti, 2 Diego Fortuny, 3 Juan Echeverría, 4 Mikey Grandy (capt.), 5 Will Crawford, 6 Shawn Clark, 7 Diego Magno, 8 Ronan Murphy, 9 Martín Landajo, 10 Lucas González Amorosino, 11 Seimou Smith, 12 Aki Pulu, 13 Dominick Iacovino, 14 Ryan James, 15 Line Latu
Replacements: 16 Sione Finefeuiaki, 17 Payton Telea-Ilalio, 18 Franco Palillo, 19 Tavius Sykora-Matthess, 20 Tommy Clark, 21 Ethan McVeigh, 22 Watson Filikitonga, 23 Patrick Madden
Date: Friday, February 24
Kick-Off: 8:00pm (UY); 4:00pm (MST)
Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo (UY)
Referee: Nehuén Jauri Rivero (AR)
Assistant Referees: Claudio Cattivelli (UY); Simón Larrubia (AR)
TMO: Francisco Pesce (UY)
HISTORICAL RESULTS
06-18-2022 American Raptors 10-26 Peñarol (Denver, CO, US)
