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Uruguay play host to Namibia on Saturday. The match is true to the words of a Rugby World Cup warm-up fixture. Uruguay and Namibia will compete together in Pool D of the World Cup. This adds extra spice to the warm-up match in Montevideo.
Uruguay had a strong start in their opening warm-up match. Los Teros were on top at half-time against Chile but ultimately won by a single point. The 26-25 win was a signal that they just lift their performance and compete for the entirety of the contest.
Andrés Vilaseca is set to lead Los Teros at the World Cup. Only he, Bautista Basso and Manuel Leindekar have been retained as starting players from the win over Chile. Esteban Meneses has never employed such extensive rotation during his years in charge of Uruguay.
Vilaseca will be joined by Felipe Arcos Pérez in the mid-field. The latter missed Super Rugby Americas to instead play for Uruguay on the World Sevens circuit. Bautista Basso has been retained on the right wing while veteran Rodrigo Silva is back at fullback for Baltazar Amaya and 7’s player Ignacio Facciolo will make his test debut on the left wing.
Inside Vilaseca will be a fresh look. Juan Andrés Zuccarino will have his first test start at fly half. He plays outside veteran Agustín Ormaechea who is in need of a strong performance given that of Santiago Álvarez against Chile and for Peñarol.
Leindekar will be joined by RWC 2019 second-row partner Ignacio Dotti. The pair started in the historic win over Fiji. They will play behind a new-look front-row. Matías Benítez and Diego Arbelo come in for Mateo Sanguinetti and Ignacio Peculo while Guillermo Pujadas starts ahead of Germán Kessler at hooker.
The back-row is also entirely changed. Manuel Ardao, Lucas Bianchi, and Manuel Diana make way for Eric Dosantos, Santiago Civetta, and Carlos Deus. Uruguay’s back-row depth has never been deeper.
The replacements bench is strong. It contains Kessler, Sanguinetti, and Bianchi. The most capped Uruguayan of all time, second-rower Diego Magno, is also included as is Reinaldo Piussi covering tight-head. In contrast, the replacement backs Juan Tafernaberry, Ignacio Álvarez, and Diego Ardao are all uncapped.
The match will be the second of three of Namibia’s South American tour. The Africans opened their tour with a hard-fought loss against the Argentina XV. The uncapped fixture is now followed by the first of two test matches for Namibia.
Namibia are coached by former South African coach Alister Coetzee. He has made three changes to the line-up from that which started against the Argentina XV. Two of the changes come in the forwards and one in the backs.
Up front hooker Louis van derby Westhuizen replaces Torsten van Jaarsveld. It is a noteworthy change in that the latter scored a hat-trick against the Argentina XV. The additional change in the forwards sees former Wallaby Richard Hardwick starting at N8. Hardwick changed allegiance from Australia to Namibia.
The Namibian forwards had problems around the park against the Argentina XV but held their own with the lineout to maul tactic. Namibia scored all four of their tries in this manner. Uruguay were watching on closely and will now be under pressure to defend against the maul well.
The one change to the Namibia backline is at scrum-half. Veteran Damian Stevens starts in place of Helarius Kisting. Stevens will be the distributor to the excellent long-range kicker that is Tiian Swanepoel. Indeed, a large part as to why Namibia had success with the maul was Swanwpoel’s precision in finding the target five meters from the try zone.
Namibia’s side will again have a double leadership role. Johan Deysel captains the side from center while second-rower Tjiuee Uanivi will again be the vice captain.
The winning side will take significant confidence with them to the World Cup. Having this match played as a warm-up for the World Cup is far from ideal but came into being as Namibia struggled to secure matches and Uruguay continues to lack opportunities to stage Tier 1 opponents.
URUGUAY
1 Matías Benítez, 2 Guillermo Pujadas, 3 Diego Arbelo, 4 Ignacio Dotti, 5 Manuel Leindekar, 6 Eric Dosantos, 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Carlos Deus, 9 Agustín Ormaechea, 10 Juan Andrés Zuccarino, 11 Ignacio Facciolo, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt.), 13 Felipe Arcos Pérez, 14 Bautista Basso, 15 Rodrigo Silva
Replacements: 16 Germán Kessler, 17 Mateo Sanguinetti, 18 Reinaldo Piussi, 19 Diego Magno, 20 Lucas Bianchi, 21 Juan Tafernaberry, 22 Ignacio Álvarez, 23 Diego Ardao
NAMIBIA
1 Desiderus Sethie, 2 Louis van der Westhuizen, 3 Casper Viviers, 4 Adriaan Ludick, 5 Tjiuee Uanivi, 6 Wian Conradie, 7 Johan Retief, 8 Richard Hardwick, 9 Damian Stevens, 10 Tiaan Swanepoel, 11 JC Greyling, 12 Danco Burger, 13 Johan Deysel (capt.), 14 Gerswin Mouton, 15 Divan Roussouw
Replacements: 16 Gihard Visagie, 17 Jason Benade, 18 Haitembu Shifuka, 19 Ruan Ludick, 20 PJ van Lill, 21 Prince !Gaoseb, 22 Jacques Theron, 23 Andre van der Berg
RUGBY WORLD CUP WARM-UP
Date: Saturday August 05
Kick-Off: 6:00pm (UY); 11:00pm (NA)
Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo (UY)
Referee: Luke Pearce (UK)
Assistant Referees: Damian Schneider (AR); Nehuen Jauri Rivero (AR)
vs
COMPLETE RESULTS
2019-06-09 – Uruguay 28-30 Namibia (Montevideo, UY)
2007-11-25 – Namibia 34-39 Uruguay (Windhoek, NA
2007-11-18 – Namibia 36-52 Uruguay (Windhoek, NA)
2000-09-22 – Uruguay 23-12 Namibia (Montevideo, UY)
