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New Zealand and Uruguay clash in Lyon on Thursday. The Pool A match will conclude Uruguay’s fifth Rugby World Cup campaign. Win, lose or draw, Los Teros will end their tournament against the All Blacks. It is a must-win for New Zealand who are tied with Italy on 10 points.
The All Blacks opened their campaign with a 27-13 loss against France in Paris. They recovered to beat Namibia 71-3 in Toulouse and blitz Italy 96-17 in Lyon. The win over Italy sent a warning to everybody; the All Blacks are real title contenders.
Uruguay also began their campaign against the host country. In their opening match, Los Teros took it to France in Lille. The 27-12 loss saw Uruguay denying France a try-scoring bonus point. Uruguay led Italy at half-time in their match in Nice. Italy improved to win 38-17. The South Americans rebounded against Namibia, winning 36-26 in Lyon.
For the first, and only, time in the tournament Los Teros will play in their traditional sky-blue jerseys. New Zealand will play in black, maintaining their strip as also used in their pool matches against France, Namibia and Italy.
New Zealand will be led out by regular captain Sam Cane. The veteran of Rugby World Cups 2015 and 2019 will earn his 92nd test cap for the All Blacks. He did not start last week against Italy. That match saw Samuel Whitelock breaking Richie McCaw’s record of 148 caps for New Zealand. Whitelock will earn his 150th in his first-ever game against Uruguay.
Cane is one of nine changes for New Zealand. He starts in a back-row consisting of Tongan Shannon Frizell and Luke Jacobson. Frizzel is one of two non-homegrown players starting for New Zealand. The other is Australian product Tyrel Lomax whose father captained New Zealand in rugby league.
Lomax comes in to the side to join Codie Taylor and Ofa Tu’ungafasi in the front-row. They will have the powerful combination of Whitelock and Tupou Vaa’i behind them in the engine room that is the second-row.
Jacboson and Vaa’i are both changes from the side that annihilated Italy. Additional changes come in the backs with scrum-half Cam Regard, center Anton Lienert-Brown, winger Leicester Fainga’anuku and fullback Damian McKenzie all starting.
On the one hand, the replacements see Beauden Barrett set to earn his 120th cap for the All Blacks. On the other hand, Ethan Blackadder will make his tournament debut for the men in black.
Uruguay’s preparation for the match was hit by a set-back. Flanker Eric Dosantos was suspended following his yellow card against Namibia. He was a replacement against the Africans.
The Uruguayan line-up to face the All Blacks features six changes to the starting line-up. Three are in the forwards with Ignacio Dotti, Lucas Bianchi and Manuel Diana starting at lock, flanker and N8 respectively. In the backs Tomás Inciarte and Gastón Mieres return at outside center and wing predictively while Rodrigo Silva will have his first game of the tournament; he starts at fullback.
The front-row is unchanged from the win over Namibia. Mateo Sanguinetti, Germán Kessler, and Diego Arbelo start together. Manuel Leindekar has impressed throughout in the second-row. He will be partnered by Dotti who replaces Felipe Aliaga.
As noted, the back-row has a double change. Bianchi is in for vice-captain Santiago Civetta while Carlos Deus makes way for Diana. Civetta will feature as a replacement with the versatile Juan Manuel Rodríguez covering the back-row too as well as the second-row.
The back-line again sees star Santiago Arata starting at scrum-half. Felipe Etcheverry will play outside him. Etcheverry has five try assists thus far in the World Cup. Veterans Agustín Ormaechea and Felipe Berchesi await their opportunities to face the All Blacks as replacements.
Captain Andrés Vilaseca will reunite with Tomás Inciarte. It comes as a minor surprise given the strong performance of Felipe Arcos Pérez against Namibia. The same applies to the back-three changes; Bautista Basso and Baltazar Amaya were both try-scorers against the Africans.
The match will officially begin international competition between the All Blacks and Los Teros. The teams have never previously faced-off at a Rugby World Cup and have never played each other in a test match outside of the competition.
Their paths have nonetheless crossed previously. Uruguay played host to New Zealand in 1976. New Zealand toured not as the All Blacks but as the New Zealand XV. The visitors were 64-3 winners in Montevideo and went unbeaten on their South American tour.
The match will be refereed exclusively in English by Wayne Barnes. The Englishman will have Jordan Way (Australia) and Matthew Carley (England) as his assistants while South African Marius Jonker will be the TMO.
TEAMS
NEW ZEALAND
1 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 2 Codie Taylor, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 4 Samuel Whitelock, 5 Tupou Vaa’i, 6 Shannon Frizell, 7 Sam Cane, 8 Luke Jacobson, 9 Cam Roigard, 10 Richie Mo’unga, 11 Leicester Fainga’anuku, 12 Jordie Barrett, 13 Anton Lienert-Brown, 14 Will Jordan, 15 Damian McKenzie
Replacements: 16 Samisoni Taukei’aho, 17 Tamaiti Williams, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Scott Barrett, 20 Ethan Blackadder, 21 Finlay Christie, 22 Beauden Barrett, 23 Caleb Clarke
URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Germán Kessler, 3 Diego Arbelo, 4 Ignacio Dotti, 5 Manuel Leindekar, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Lucas Bianchi, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Santiago Arata, 10 Felipe Etcheverry, 11 Nicolás Freitas, 12 Andrés Vilaseca, 13 Tomás Inciarte, 14 Gastón Mieres, 15 Rodrigo Silva
Replacements: 16 Guillermo Pujadas, 17 Matías Benítez, 18 Ignacio Péculo, 19 Juan Manuel Rodríguez, 20 Santiago Civetta, 21 Agustín Ormaechea 22 Felipe Berchesi, 23 Juan Manuel Alonso
RWC 2023 – NEW ZEALAND VS URUGUAY
Date: Thursday, October 05
Kick-Off: 9pm (FR); 4pm (UY)
Venue: OL Stadium, Lyon (FR)
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Assistant Referees: Jordan Way (Australia); Matthew Carley (England)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
vs
HISTORIC RESULTS
1976-10-12 – Uruguay 3-64 New Zealand (Montevideo, UY)*
* Uncapped
