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The feature match of round two of Super Rugby Americas 2023 sees Selknam at home against Los Pampas. Both teams were winners in the opening round. Selknam comfortably defeated the American Raptors in Santiago, Chile while Los Pampas enjoyed a road victory over Os Cobras in São Paulo, Brazil.
Selknam have retained thirteen of the fifteen men who started against the American Raptors. The two changes come at loose head prop and on the left wing respectively. Javier Carrasco replaces Salvador Lues while Pablo Casas gets his first Selknam start in place of Gaspar Moltedo.
The Selknam line-up is similar to that expected to feature for Chile at the World Cup. That is the case for the time being as Selknam will rotate thorughout the Super Rugby Americas season. Two names on the bench against Los Pampas are newcomers. They are replacement tight head prop Lucas Bordigoni, and fly half Diego Warnken.
Los Pampas have been forced into changes. Captain Juan Pablo Castro is out following a foul play incident wherein Os Cobras suffered a red card. Jerónimo Ulloa is also out for the same reason. They account for two of the six overall changes made by Ignacio Fernández Lobbe.
Manuel Bernstein moves from flanker to second-row, doing so in place of Lorenzo Colidio. This sees an opportunity for Jerónimo Ureta to start in the back-row. The four changes to the backs include a double change on the wings; Tomás Passaro and Benjamín Elizalde replace Iñaki Delguy and Jerónimo Ulloa. Felipe de la Vega moves from inside center to outside center while former Cafeteros Pro mid-fielder Manuel Alfaro will wear 12.
While Saturday’s match is the first ever between Selknam and Los Pampas, it would be erroneous to suggest that it is an altogether new meeting. Los Ceibos were 32-16 winners in 2020. Los Jagaures XV won 65-8 and 68-8 in SLAR 2021 while Selknam responded with three wins in 2022. They were 20-10 in Santiago 23-10 in Montevideo and 16-10 in the Semi Final.
Saturday’s match is officially the top of the table battle. However, with only one round of the season having been played the real story is that it is the battle between the two best performing sides from the opening round.
Selknam were the most convincing performers of all teams in round one of Super Rugby Americas. The Chileans enter their match against Los Pampas as favorites to win. This in itself is tremendous as a Chilean side being favored to beaten a professional team from across the Andes is monumental.
TEAMS
SELKNAM
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Tomás Dussaillant, 3 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 4 Santiago Pedrero, 5 Pablo Huete, 6 Clemente Saavedra, 7 Ignacio Silva, 8 Joaquín Milesi, 9 Benjamín Videla, 10 Rodrigo Fernández, 11 Pablo Casas, 12 Santiago Videla (capt.), 13 Matías Garafulic, 14 Nicolás Garafulic, 15 Francisco Urroz
Replacements: 16 Diego Escobar, 17 Salvador Lues, 18 Lucas Bordigoni, 19 Thomas Orchard, 20 Raimundo Martínez, 21 Lukas Carvallo, 22 Diego Warnken, 23 José Ignacio Larenas
PAMPAS
1 Miguel Prince, 2 Ramiro Gurovich, 3 Javier Coronel, 4 Manuel Bernstein, 5 Federico Lavanini, 6 Nicolás D’Amorim, 7 Jerónimo Ureta, 8 Santiago Ruiz (capt.), 9 Rafael Iriarte, 10 Joaquín de la Vega Mendía, 11 Tomás Passaro, 12 Manuel Alfaro, 13 Felipe de la Vega, 14 Benjamín Elizalde, 15 Juan Ignacio Landó
Replacements: 16 Rodrigo Pérez Boulan, 17 Matías Medrano, 18 Javier Corvalán, 19 Lorenzo Colidio, 20 Rodrigo Fernández Criado, 21 Eliseo Morales, 22 Joaquín Lamas, 23 Tomás Suárez Folch
Date: Saturday, February 25
Kick-Off: 6:00pm (CL); 5:00pm (AR)
Venue: La Pintana, Santiago (CL)
Referee: Damian Schneider (AR)
Assistant Referees: Juan Manuel López (AR); Felipe Balbontín (CL)
TMO: Ignacio Calle (CL)
HISTORICAL RESULTS
N/A
