July Tests 2024: Chile vs Scotland – ARN Guide

Santiago del Chile will see international rugby expand. Saturday will be the first ever meeting in a test match between Chile and Scotland. The match is the third for both teams of the ongoing July Internationals.

Both Chile and Scotland go in to the match on the back of two July victories. Scotland clocked-up two big wins in North America. First Scotland downed Canada by a record margin of 73-12. Then Scotland defeated he USA 42-7.

Los Cóndores opened their July campaign against Hong Kong. Chile were 22-3 up at half-time but complacency meant the home side did not score second-half points. Chile won 22-17. In their second match, Chile were 20-0 ahead against Belgium at half-time. Chile went on to win the match 33-5 at Viña del Mar.

Saturday’s test match is an example of what is possible following structural change. Chile Rugby was falling apart during the Rugby World Cup 2015-2019 cycle. Now Chile has a professional team and a High Performance program. With is came Chile’s debut at the World Cup in 2023 and a three match home series in July 2024.

LINE-UP CHANGES

3 Matías Dittus, replaces Iñaki Gurruchaga
9 Lucas Berti replaces Marcelo Torrealba
15 Diego Warnken replaces Luca Strabucchi

1 Nathan McBeth replaces Pierre Schoeman
2 Dylan Richardson replaces Ewan Ashman
3 Will Hurd replaces Murphy Walker
5 Ewan Johnson replaces Scott Cummings
6 Gregor Brown replaces Jamie Ritchie
7 Jamie Ritchie moves from 6; replaces Rory Darge
8 Josh Bayliss replaces Matt Fagerson
9 Gus Warr replaces George Horne
10 Ben Healy replaces Adam Hastings
11 Aaron Reed replaces Duhan van de Merwe
13 Kyle Steyn moves from 14; replaces Huw Jones
14 Jamie Dobie replaces Kyle Steyn 

NOTES

• Pablo Lemoine has made three changes from the side that defeated Belgium.
• Captain Martín Sigren has the most caps of the starting line-up with 33.
• Replacement José Ignacio Larenas will retire following the test match. He is Chile’s first-ever player to reach 50 caps.
• Five of Chile’s starting XV play domestically. Augusto Bohme, Santiago Videla and Martín Sigren play Major League Rugby. Matías Dittus and Lucas Berti play in France.
• Replacement hooker Diego Escobar joins Racing 92 for the upcoming season. Replacement back-rower Joaquín Milesi plays in Spain.
• Diego Warnken debuts for Chile. He will play fullback but played for Chile XV at fly half. Tomás alas will play fly half while regular fly half, Rodrigo Fernández, is not fit to play.
• Inside center Santiago Videla broke the all-time point scoring record for Chile.
• Lucas Berti debuted vs Belgium and now starts. is He is Chile’s one non-homegrown player.
• Scotland have made 10 changes from the side that defeated the USA Eagles.
• Kyle Rowe, Kyle Steyn, Sione Tuipulotu, Jamie Ritchie and Alex Craig start again.
• Ewan Johnson, who debuted against Canada, earns his first test start. First starting caps have also been awarded to South African prop Nathan McBeth and English prop Will Hurd.
• 9 of the starting 15 are not homegrown Scottish players. They come from Australia, England, France, Ireland, and South Africa.
• Replacement hooker Patrick Harrison will make his test debut for Scotland
• Four players played for Scotland ‘A’ vs Chile in 2022. They are: Matt Currie, Sione Tuipulotu, Pierre Schoeman and Javan Sebastian.

PREDICTION

Chile’s Rugby World Cup debut was no walk in the park. All four of Los Cóndores matches were against prior World Cup Quarter Finalists: Argentina, England, Japan and Samoa. By way of comparison, Scotland faced two prior Quarter Finalists. Chile battled hard and came away with tries in three of the four matches. This provides some idea of where to place Chile’s level compared to Scotland. ARN projects Scotland to win by 35+ points.

LINEUPS

CHILE
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Augusto Bohme, 3 Matías Dittus, 4 Clemente Saavedra, 5 Javier Eissmann, 6 Martín Sigren (capt.), 7 Raimundo Martínez, 8 Alfonso Escobar, 9 Lucas Berti, 10 Tomás Salas, 11 Nicolás Garafulic, 12 Santiago Videla, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Cristóbal Game, 15 Diego Warnken

Replacements: 16 Diego Escobar, 17 Salvador Lues, 18 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 19 Santiago Pedrero, 20 Joaquín Milesi, 21 Marcelo Torrealba, 22 Benjamín Videla, 23 José Ignacio Larenas

SCOTLAND
1 Nathan McBeth, 2 Dylan Richardson, 3 Will Hurd, 4 Alex Craig, 5 Ewan Johnson, 6 Gregor Brown, 7 Jamie Ritchie (co-capt.) 8 Josh Bayliss, 9 Gus Warr, 10 Ben Healy, 11 Aaron Reed, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 13 Kyle Steyn, 14 Jamie Dobie, 15 Kyle Rowe

Replacements: 16. Patrick Harrison, 17 Pierre Schoeman, 18 Javan Sebastian, 19 Max Williamson, 20 Rory Darge, 21 Adam Hastings, 22 Stafford McDowall, 23 Matt Currie

 

MATCH DETAILS

Date: Saturday, July 20
Venue: Estadio Nacional (Santiago, Chile)
Kickoff: 3pm (CL)
Weather Forecast: Showers; 14 (Celsius); Wind 8 km/h
Broadcasts: ESPN; Disney +

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: Gonzalo De Achaval (Argentina); Andrew Brace (Ireland)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)

HISTORY

CAPPED TEST MATCHES N/A

Jun 25, 2022 – Chile 05-45 Scotland ‘A’ (Santiago, CL)