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The north Chilean port city of Antofagasta will play host to a Cóndores match on Saturday. Chile take-on the Argentina XV in their second of four warm-up matches ahead of making their World Cup debut. The fixture promises to see the Estadio Calvo y Bascuñán come alive.
Pablo Lemoine has rotated his roster. The uncapped status of the fixture means that players won’t be awarded caps and rankings are not on the line. Needless to say, the big picture is the World Cup; players have to do their very best to prove that they merit a place on the 33-man roster.
Having undergone surgery, Martín Sigren is back to captain Los Cóndores. Sigren will do so in his regular position of flanker. Fly half Rodrigo Fernández lead the side against Uruguay. He drops out of the side altogether.
The modified Chilean team sees Salvador Lues, Diego Escobar, and Iñaki Gurruchaga replacing Javier Carrasco, Augusto Bohme, and Matías Dittus in the front-row. The fit-again Santiago Pedrero, Augusto Sarmiento are back to start in place of Javier Eissmann and Pablo Huete in the second-row.
Sigren leads the side in the 6 shirt. He takes over from Clemente Saavedra who was a regular in the spoition for Selknam in Super Rugby Americas 2023. Both Raimundo Martínez and Joaquín Milesi had impressive seasons for Selknam. They replace the more established Ignacio Silva, and Alfonso Escobar at flanker and N8 respectively.
Youth will play in the halves. Lemoine has handed a dream opportunity to Lukas Carvallo, and Benjamín Videla. They play in place of Chile’s regular 9 and 10 combination of Marcelo Torrealba and Rodrigo Fernández.
The most capped player on the roster, José Ignacio Larenas will start inside Domingo Saavedra in the centers. They replace the combination of Matías Garafulic, and Pablo Casas. Finally, the back-three sees Nicolas Garafulic back to fitness at long last to play on the right wing. He joins Franco Velarde and goal-kicker Francisco Urroz.
The Argentina XV is the next-of-XV; yet, it is much more than that. The team is Argentina’s go-to selection for players meriting opportunities, players returning from injuries and for players in positions that Los Pumas has an oversupply of at any one time.
The starting front-row is a case in point. All are Pumas. Props Mayco Vivas and Lucio Sordoni faced New Zealand last month and now start against Chile. Facundo Bosch played in the 2020 win over New Zealand and replacement Santiago Socino played in the 2022 win over New Zealand.
Second-rowers Lautaro Simes and Federico Lavanini are both uncapped but both are being monitored as Argentina presently has injuries in this position. Flankers Rodrigo Fernández Criado, and Manuel Bernstein, are also uncapped while Joaquín Oviedo has been playing very well in France but the depth sees him outside of the test roster.
It is a Super Rugby Americas combination in the halves. Rafael Iriarte, and Joaquín de la Vega Mendía of Los Pampas start together with the latter also captaining the side. Centers Luciano González and Agustín Segura are both also uncapped with the former having earned a call-up to Los Pumas’ camp prior to the first test of the year.
The back-three are all capped. Rodrigo Isgró debuted in the win over Australia last month. Sebastián Cancelliere was a last minute replacement for Bautista Delguy against New Zealand. Now they both start alongside Isgró in the back-three. Delguy has a huge opportunity to impress at fullback.
Matches between Chile and the Argentina XV began in 2016. The newness of the fixture should not distract from the history involved. The countries first competed against each-tier at the international level in 1936.
The Argentina XV has won 9 of the 10 matches. They were by large margins from 2016-2019. Everything changes with the arrival of a High Performance system in Chile. Los Cóndores lost by just one point in 2020 and then made history by beating the Argentina in 2021. The win was the most recent match between the teams.
CHILE
1 Salvador Lues, 2 Diego Escobar, 3 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 4 Santiago Pedrero, 5 Augusto Sarmiento, 6 Martín Sigren (capt.), 7 Raimundo Martínez, 8 Joaquín Milesi, 9 Lukas Carvallo, 10 Benjamín Videla, 11 Franco Velarde, 12 José Ignacio Larenas, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Nicolás Garafulic, 15 Francisco Urroz
Replacements: 16 Vittorio Lastra, 17 Tomás Dussaillant, 18 Esteban Inostroza, 19 Javier Eissmann, 20 Clemente Saavedra, 21 Nicolás Herreros, 22 Matías Garafulic, 23 Iñaki Ayarza
ARGENTINA XV
1 Mayco Vivas, 2 Facundo Bosch, 3 Lucio Sordoni, 4 Lautaro Simes, 5 Federico Lavanini, 6 Rodrigo Fernández Criado, 7 Manuel Bernstein, 8 Joaquín Oviedo, 9 Rafael Iriarte, 10 Joaquín de la Vega Mendía (capt.), 11 Rodrigo Isgró, 12 Luciano González, 13 Agustín Segura, 14 Sebastián Cancelliere, 15 Bautista Delguy
Replacements: 16 Santiago Socino, 17 Santiago Pulella, 18 Santiago Medrano, 19 Lorenzo Colidio, 20 Eliseo Fourcade, 21 Julián Hernández, 22 Juan Pablo Castro, 23 Benjamín Elizalde
RWC Warm-Up
Date: Saturday, August 05
Kick-Off: 7:00pm (CL); 8:00pm (AR)
Venue: Estadio Calvo y Bascuñán, Antofagasta (CL)
Referee: Craig Evans (UK)
Assistant Referees: Francisco González (UY); Matías Esteban (UY)
vs
COMPLETE RESULTS
Sep 15, 2021 – Chile 25-24 Argentina XV (Santiago, CL)
Oct 17, 2020 – Argentina XV 25-24 Chile (Montevideo, Uruguay)
May 18, 2019 – Argentina XV 55-03 Chile (Tucumán, Argentina)
Mar 09, 2019 – Chile 10-85 Argentina XV (Santiago, Chile)
Jan 23, 2019 – Argentina XV 47-14 Chile (La Boya, Argentina)
Feb 10, 2018 – Argentina XV 57-12 Chile (Ushuaia, Argentina)
June 03, 2017 –Chile 15-31 Argentina XV (Santiago, Chile)
Feb 18, 2017 – Chile 10-45 Argentina XV (Concepción, Chile)
Jun 04, 2016 – Chile 12-87 Argentina XV (Santiago, Chile)
Feb 13, 2016 – Argentina XV 52-15 (San Juan, Argentina)
Argentina XV Wins: 9
Chile Wins: 1
