Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Round two of Super Rugby Americas 2024 kick’s-off on Friday. It is Buenos Aires vs Denver with Los Pampas at home against the American Raptors. The match sees big winners from week one hosting big losers.
Los Pampas are full of confidence. Head Coach Juan Manuel Leguizamón sees no reason for changes and so has named an unchanged line-up. Manuel Bernstein leads the unchanged side from flanker. He joins Santiago Montagner and Joaquín Moro in the back-row. Moro had an impressive debut last week.
Former Yacare scrum-half Ignacio Inchauspe and Joaquín de la Vega Mendía will run the game from the halves. Both players had strong performances in the opening round. Bernabé López Fleming, Justo Piccardo, Santiago Pernas, and Marcos Eliçagaray all stepped up on debut.
Four Argentines will start for the American Raptors. Diego Fortuny leads the side from hooker with Facundo Pomponio joining him in the front-row. Francisco Quinn and Tomi Moroni start at fullback and on the left wing respectively. All four all started against Los Dogos last week.
Rather than make wholesale changes, Head Coach David Butcher has retained thirteen of the fifteen starters. The two alterations see Zach Hall and Uruguayan Diego Magno out. Magno left the field injured in Córdoba.
The loss of Magno sees Tommy Clark elevated to the starting line-up. Clark joins Mo Vainikolo and Aidan Christians in the back-row. Hall has been replaced by Watson Filikitonga who reunites with Aki Pulu in the centers.
The teams met twice in Super Rugby Americas 2023. Friday’s match will be the third encounter between the teams. Los Pampas won the first match 27-16 in March and put on a clinical performance to win 63-0 away at Infinity Park.
Friday’s fixture was scheduled to be at La Catedral, the regular home venue for Los Pampas. Rain problems mean that the venue will not be ready in time which saw a decision made on Monday to move the match across own to Club Newman.
Club Newman produced Pumas past and present. Marcos Ayerza , Eduardo Bruchou, Rafael Bullrich, Agustín Canalda, Manuel Contepomi Mariano Correa, Miguel Devoto, Emilio Ezcurra, Eduardo García Terán, Agustín Gosio , Francisco Irrarázabal, Martín Lanfranco, Alejandro Marguery, Ernesto Miguens, Javier O’Farrell, Rodolfo Ventura, and Cristian Vie are all examples. The current skipper of the national team, Julián Montoya, is also from the club as is the new Head Coach Felipe Contepomi.
TEAMS
PAMPAS
1 Matías Medrano, 2 Ramiro Gurovich, 3 Javier Coronel, 4 Eliseo Fourcade, 5 Marcelo Toledo, 6 Manuel Bernstein (capt.), 7 Santiago Montagner, 8 Joaquín Moro, 9 Ignacio Inchauspe, 10 Joaquín de la Vega Mendía, 11 Bernabé López Fleming, 12 Justo Piccardo, 13 Juan Pablo Castro, 14 Santiago Pernas, 15 Marcos Eliçagaray
Replacements: 16 Valentino Minoyetti, 17 Javier Corvalán, 18 Tomás Rapetti, 19 Mateo Lorenzo, 20 Eliseo Chiavassa, 21 Bruno Heit, 22 Manuel Nogués, 23 Benjamín Elizalde
RAPTORS
1 Ma’ake Muti, 2 Diego Fortuny (capt.), 3 Facundo Pomponio, 4 Javon Camp-Villalobos, 5 Mikey Grandy, 6 Mo Vainikolo, 7 Aidan Christians, 8 Tommy Clark, 9 Devereaux Ferris, 10 Patrick Madden, 11 Tomi Morani, 12 Aki Pulu, 13 Watson Filikitonga, 14 Rufus McLean, 15 Francisco Quinn
Replacements: 16 Jackson Zabierek, 17 Clay Markoff, 18 Koby Baker, 19 Will Crawford, 20 Shawn Clark, 21 John Lefevre, 22 Zach Hall, 23 Jacob Hidalgo
Date: Friday, February 22
Kick-Off: 4:30pm (AR); 12:30pm (MT)
Venue: Club Newman (Buenos Aires, AR)
Referee: Pablo Deluca (AR)
Assistant Referees: Juan López; Juan Maio
TMO: Marcelo Pilara
Broadcast: ESPN; Star +
HISTORIC RESULTS
Apr 16, 2023 – American Raptors 0-63 Pampas (Infinity Park, Denver, CO, US)
Mar 03, 2023 – Pampas 27-16 American Raptors (CASI, Buenos Aires, AR)
