SRA 2025 – Tarucas vs Cobras – ARN Guide

2025 begins with professional rugby finally having arrived in Argentina’s northwest. The rugby heartland of Tucumán is home to Super Rugby Americas’ rookie franchise Los Tarucas. The debuting Tarucas take-on the best of Brazilian rugby with Os Cobras looking for a strong start to their new campaign ahead of the vital Rugby World Cup 2027 Qualifiers.

 

SUPER RUGBY AMERICAS DEBUTS

– (10) JM Vivas, M Perondi, S Aguilar, B Estofán, S Ferro, A Iglesias, Á García Iandolino, A Sarelli, I Cerrutti, N Macome
– (5) A Guillamondegui, A Schluter, V Galvão, R Santos, N Azevedo

CAPPED INTERNATIONALS

(1) – D Fortuny (Capped by Argentina)
(15) – B Alves, EW Pinheiro, B Donald, G Oliveira, C Dias, L Spago, R Tenório, LM Temer, D Lima, L Tranquez, H Ferreira, G Paganini, A Arruda, J Amaral, N Azevedo (All capped by Brazil)

 

NOTABLE ABSENTEES

– Tomás Bartolini

NOTES

• The match marks Los Tarucas’ debut in Super Rugby Americas and the expansion of professional rugby into Argentina’s northeast.
• Three Cobras players are Argentines: A Guillamondegui, M Todaro, and J Coronel. Todaro played for Los Dogos in Super Rugby Americas 2025 while Coronel played for Los Pampas.
• All 23 Tarucas’ players are Argentines.
• T Medina, L Asevedo, Á García Iandolino, A Sarelli, D Correa and JM Vivas were Pumitas in 2024.
• Francisco Moreno formerly played for Cobras.
• Facundo Cardozo was a 2025 champion with Los Dogos.
• Tomás Bartolini was named skipper but will not face Os Cobras. Santiago Aguilar will lead the team with u20’s star Tomás Medina named as vice-captain.
• Replacement hooker Diego Fortuny is a former Puma. Uncapped second-rower Luciano Asevedo trained with Los Pumas in 2024.
• Cobras captain Cleber Dias has 47 caps for Brazil. Lucas Tranquez has even more with 53 caps.
• Tucumán clubs with players set to play for Los Tarucas vs Os Cobras include Cardenales, Lawn Tennis, Natacion y Gimnasia, Tucumán RC and Universitario.
• Pedro López Bildosa will make his professional officiating debut as assistant to veteran Damián Schneider.

PREDICTION

Los Tarucas are the debuting rookie franchise and are a team with a high number of recent graduates from Argentina’s junior system. This is very different to Os Cobras, a veteran team in the league and one comprised preeminently of regulars in Brazil’s senior Men’s test team, Os Tupis. Tarucas‘ players are a coming together of youth from the High Performance system and a scattering of players from within the region as well as outside with Mendoza notably represented. All told, Los Tucumanos carry the favorites tag does against Os Cobras.

LINEUPS

TARUCAS
1 Julián Martín, 2 Juan Manuel Vivas, 3 Francisco Moreno, 4 Mariano Perondi, 5 Luciano Asevedo, 6 Facundo García Hamilton, 7 Facundo Cardozo, 8 Santiago Aguilar (capt.), 9 Simón Benítez Cruz, 10 Nicolás Roger, 11 Tomás Vanni, 12 Tomás Medina, 13 Bautista Estofán, 14 Baltazar García, 15 Stefano Ferro

Replacements: 16 Diego Fortuny, 17 Diego Correa, 18 Agustín Iglesias, 19 Álvaro García Iandolino, 20 Agustín Sarelli, 21 Estanislao Pregot, 22 Ignacio Cerrutti, 23 Nicolás Macome

COBRAS
1 Brendon Alves, 2 Endy Willian Pinheiro, 3 Javier Coronel, 4 Ben Donald, 5 Gabriel Oliveira, 6 Manuel Todaro, 7 Renato Santos, 8 Cleber Dias (capt.), 9 Lucas Spago, 10 Augusto Guillamondegui, 11 Andrei Santana, 12 Robert Tenório, 13 Lorenzo Massari Temer, 14 Daniel Lima, 15 Lucas Tranquez

Replacements: 16 Henrique Ferreira, 17 Aquiles Schluter, 18 Vicente Galvão, 19 Gabriel Paganini, 20 André Arruda, 21 Rodrigo Santos, 22 João Amaral, 23 Nicolas Azevedo

MATCH INFO

Date: Saturday, February 15
Venue: La Caldera del Parque, San Miguel de Tucumán (AR)
Kickoff: 5pm (AR); 5pm (Brasília)
Weather Forecast: Hot, Scattered Thunderstorms, 33°C; Wind 11 km/h)
Broadcasts: ESPN; Disney +

OFFICIALS

Referee: Damián Schneider (AR)
Assistants: Federico Longobardi (AR); Pedro López Bildosa (AR)
TMO: Marcos Miranda (BR)

HISTORY

NO PRIOR FIXTURES