Super Rugby Americas 2024 – Selknam vs Pampas – ARN Guide

It will be Santiago vs Buenos Aires in South America on Saturday. Selknam will be at home against Los Pampas. Both teams were leading last week only to lose their respective matches. Selknam were beaten at the death by reigning champions Peñarol while Los Dogos won the Argentine derby.

CLUB DEBUTS

(3) – Sebastián Bianchi, Federico Kennedy, Andrés Kuzmanic
(1) – Estanislao Carullo

SUPER RUGBY AMERICAS DEBUTS

(3) – Sebastián Bianchi*, Federico Kennedy*, Andrés Kuzmanic*
(1) – Estanislao Carullo*
* – Pro Debut

CAPPED INTERNATIONALS

(14) –S Lues, 2 D Escobar, I Gurruchaga, C Saavedra, S Pedrero, R Martínez, A Escobar, I Ubeda, M Torrealba, F Velarde, D Saavedra, J Carrasco, J Eissmann, J Larenas

(0)

NOTABLE ABSENTEES

– T Dussaillant (CL), B Videla (CL), M Garafulic (CL), N Garafulic (CL), C Game (CL), L Strabucchi, (CL), F Albrisi, (AR), Rafael Iriarte (AR), Nicolás Roger (AR)

– J Coronel, E Chiavassa, E Morales

NOTES

• Racing 92 bound hooker Diego Escobar will play his first SRA match of the year.
• The uncapped Felipe Méndez and Martín Dumay starts at 10 and 12 for Selknam. Both have played for Chile XV. Chile u19 speedster Nicolás Saab starts on the wing.
• Sebastián Bianchi, Federico Kennedy, Andrés Kuzmanic debut for Selknam as replacements.
• Selknam have opted for Chilean players to face one of Argentina’s two current professional teams. This is motivated, in no small part, as a means of preparing for 2024 international duty.
• Juan Manuel Leguizamón has made eight changes to Los Pampas. Estanislao Carullo starts on debut.
• Tomás Bernasconi is back from Italy to start at N8 for Los Pampas.
• Selknam have the second best lineout in SRA 2024 with 92% success. Los Pampas have the worst with 71% success.
• Los Pampas rank as the best attacking team with 35 clean breaks. Selknam have made 12.
• Manuel Bernstein is tied for 1st place for off-loads with 3.
• Francisco González returns from the Rugby Sevens circuit to referee his first match of the season.

PREDICTION

The frustration of losing when in winning positions a week ago will be on the minds of all involved. Selknam will be up for the challenge to give their home supporters reason to celebrate. With Scotland visiting in July for a test match the individual players will be under real pressure now to perform. The reward of a home match against an elite opponent cannot be underestimated. Selknam are narrow favorites to win what should be a low-scoring match.

LINEUPS

SELKNAM
1 Salvador Lues, 2 Diego Escobar, 3 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 4 Clemente Saavedra (capt.), 5 Santiago Pedrero, 6 Raimundo Martínez, 7 Alfonso Escobar, 8 Into Ubeda, 9 Marcelo Torrealba, 10 Felipe Méndez, 11 Franco Velarde, 12 Martín Dumay, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Nicolás Saab, 15 Iñaki Delguy

Replacements: 16 Simón Donoso, 17 Javier Carrasco, 18 Ignacio González, 19 Javier Eissmann, 20 Andrés Kuzmanic, 21 Sebastián Bianchi, 22 José Larenas, 23 Federico Kennedy

PAMPAS
1 Javier Corvalán, 2 Ramiro Gurovich, 3 Estanislao Carullo, 4 Eliseo Fourcade, 5 Marcelo Toledo, 6 Manuel Bernstein (capt.), 7 Nicolás D’Amorim, 8 Tomás Bernasconi, 9 Mateo Albanese, 10 Joaquín de la Vega Mendía, 11 Jerónimo Ulloa, 12 Justo Piccardo, 13 Bruno Heit, 14 Santiago Peonas, 15 Benjamín Elizalde

Replacements: 16 Valentino Minoyetti, 17 Renzo Zanella, 18 Tomás Rapetti, 19 Rodrigo Fernández Criado, 20 Joaquín Moro, 21 Ignacio Inchauspe, 22 Marcos Eliçagaray, 23 Juan Pablo Castro

MATCH INFO

Date: Saturday, March 16
Venue: Estadio Municipal de La Pintana
Kickoff: 4:40pm (CL); 5:40pm (AR)
Weather Forecast: Sunny, 27°C; wind (3-10 km/h)
Broadcasts: ESPN; Star +

OFFICIALS

Referee: Francisco González (UY)
Assistants: Gonzalo de Achával; Frank Méndez
TMO: Ignacio Calle

HISTORY

HEAD-TO-HEAD (2) – Pampas 1, Selknam 1, STREAK Selknam +1
May 12, 2023 – Pampas 19-23 Selknam (Buenos Aires, AR)
Feb 25, 2023 – Selknam 34-20 Pampas (Santiago, CL)