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After a three-year hiatus, the World Rugby u20 Trophy officially returns on Saturday in Nairobi. The two Americas teams will go head-to-head in the opening round with Uruguay welcoming the USA back to the tournament for the first time since 2016.
Los Teritos are coached by former senior Teros prop Guillermo Storace, whose son is a star midfielder who featured frequently for Peñarol during the Super Rugby Americas tournament. Uruguay swept a u20 series hosted by Canada last summer, also defeating Chile and Zimbabwe, and hosted both Canada and Spain in warm-up matches earlier this year.
Others who featured for Penarol this season include eightman Manuel Rosmarino, flyhalf Ícaro Amarillo, and winger Nicolás Conti. Francisco García and Pedro Hoblog were also in the squad but both are surprisingly left on the bench, with Máximo Lamelas preferred at hooker and Joaquín Suárez starting at scrumhalf. Lamelas is the son of another Teros great, Diego Lamelas.
Ex-Eagles flanker Kyle Sumsion is in charge of the USA side who breezed through the Canadians to qualify as North America’s entry. The team is notably without American Raptors center Aki Pulu, La Rochelle academy lock Mikaea Wynyard, and Toulouse academy back row Braemar Murray among others. Promising second row Henry Duke was named in the traveling squad but is left out of the lineup.
Rising star Aisake Tukuafu has joined the side to soften the loss of Pulu. He forms an impressive midfield partnership with Dominic Besag, who has been named captain. Iosefa Toia’ivao is another addition to the backline, while No8 Aidan Christians and tighthead prop Connor Devos are rated as future senior caps by the Eagles selectors.
Kickoff is set for 2pm local time, 4am Pacific, 7am Eastern, 8am Montevideo. A live stream will be available on the Kenya Rugby YouTube page.
URUGUAY
1 Joaquín Borrazas, 2 Máximo Lamelas, 3 Juan Pedro Lorenzo, 4 Franco Bertini, 5 Manuel Bertolotti, 6 Juan Ignacio Cambón (capt.), 7 Francisco Deffeminis, 8 Manuel Rosmarino, 9 Joaquín Suárez, 10 Ícaro Amarillo, 11 Nicolás Conti, 12 Guillermo Juan Storace, 13 Pedro Brum, 14 Juan González, 15 Juan Carlos Canessa
Replacements: 16 Francisco García, 17 Felipe Pick, 18 Tomás Coubrough, 19 Martín Civetta, 20 Arturo Ten Hoever, 21 Pedro Hoblog, 22 Juan Bautista Crisci, 23 Dante Soto
USA
1 John Wilson, 2 Caden Crist, 3 Connor Devos, 4 Dylan Fortune, 5 William Sherman, 6 Cameron McAlpine, 7 Hayden McKay, 8 Aidan Christians, 9 Thomas Hannon, 10 Hugh O’Kennedy, 11 Iosefa Toia’ivao, 12 Dominic Besag (capt.), 13 Aisake Tukuafu, 14 Sosaia Pongi, 15 Rand Santos
Replacements: 16 John Vinter, 17 Declan Dolan, 18 Jaydon Brooks, 19 Jackson Cain, 20 Logan Ballinger, 21 Solomon Williams, 22 Ollie Cline, 23 Corbin Smith
Date: Saturday, July 15
Venue: Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi
Kickoff: 14:00 local (04:00 Pacific, 07:00 Eastern, 08:00 Montevideo)
Broadcasts: YouTube
Referee: Tevita Rokovereni (Fiji)
