Nations Cup Round 1 Preview

The World Rugby Nations Cup returns on Thursday, hosted for the 10th consecutive time in Bucharest, Romania. This year’s tournament has been expanded from four to six teams for the first time since 2012. With the Tbilisi Cup put on hold due to Georgia’s Pacific Island tour, Emerging Italy and Uruguay have joined Spain, Namibia, Romania, and the Argentina XV in this year’s rendition.

All matches will be streamed live on RugbyTV.

 

ARGENTINA XV vs SPAIN
16:00 local, 13:00 GMT, 09:00 EDT

The Argentines will field a team similar to the one that won the Americas Rugby Championship. Felipe Ezcurra will captain a side that contains a number of fringe Pumas players including hooker Santiago Iglesias Valdez and strong midfield pair Gabriel Ascárate and Juan Cappiello. France-based props Carlos Muzzio and Lucas Martínez await to make an entrance from the bench.

While Spain have entered the competition with full test status, they continue to struggle at getting all of their best players on the field at once. Numerous top professionals are absent, though they do welcome a pair of Pro D2 flankers to the mix in Asier Usarraga of Biarritz and Florian Munoz-Rivero from Provence. Both are uncapped and they are joined by 19-year-old Jaime Mata at flyhalf, reserve props Michael Dallery and Pablo Gutierrez, and another teenager in Perpignan winger Jordi Jorba.

ARGENTINA XV
1 Franco Brarda 2 Santiago Iglesias Valdez 3 Cristian Bartoloni 4 Ignacio Larrague 5 Pedro Ortega 6 Lucas Maguire 7 Lautaro Bavaro 8 Santiago Portillo 9 Felipe Ezcurra (capt.) 10 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla 11 Franco Cuaranta 12 Gabriel Ascárate 13 Juan Cappiello 14 Sebastián Cancelliere 15 Pedro Mercerat

16 Axel Zapata 17 Carlos Muzzio 18 Lucas Martínez 19 Sacha Casañas 20 Santago Montagner 21 Marcos Bollini 22 Joaquín Paz 23 Segundo Tuculet

SPAIN
1 Fernando López 2 Juan Anaya 3 Jesús Moreno Rodriguez 4 Álvaro Nuñez 5 David Barrera 6 Asier Usárraga 7 Florian Muñoz-Rivero 8 Jaime Nava (capt.) 9 Facundo Munilla 10 Jaime Mata 11 Ignacio Contardi 12 Thibaut Álvarez 13 Federico Castiglioni 14 Julen Goia 15 Sergi Aubanell

16 Daniel Marrón 17 Michael Dallery 18 Pablo Gutierrez 19 Álvaro Abril 20 Oier Goia 21 Pablo Gil 23 Rafael de Santiago 23 Jordi Jorba

Referee: Shota Tevzadze (GRU)

 

URUGUAY vs EMERGING ITALY
18:00 local, 15:00 GMT, 11:00 EDT

Los Teros have named a youthful side with a handful of senior players to held guide the youngsters. First choice props Mateo Sanguinetti and Mario Sagario boost the front row, while regular captain Juan Manuel Gaminara leads the team from the flank. 20-year-old scrumhalf Santiago Arata will get a chance to impress with a new flyhalf outside in Santiago Martínez.

The Italians have sent an entirely uncapped ‘A’ side filled mostly with recent graduates of their national u20 program. Petrarca flanker Federico Conforti leads the team drawn almost entirely from the Italian Eccellenza, with Leicester Tigers prop Riccardo Brugnara an exception. Promising halfbacks Simone Marinaro and Maicol Azzolini are ones to watch, as is tall Calvisano winger Marco Susio.

URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti 2 Facundo Gattas 3 Mario Sagario 4 Diego Ayala 5 Ignacio Dotti 6 Juan Manuel Gaminara (capt.) 7 Matías Beer 8 Franco Lamanna 9 Santiago Arata 10 Santiago Martínez 11 Andrés Rocco 12 Facundo Klappenbach 13 Pedro Deal 14 Leandro Leivas 15 Federico Favaro

16 Germán Kessler 17 Juan Echeverría 18 Ignacio Secco 19 Diego Magno 20 Alejandro Nieto 21 Guillermo Lijtenstein 22 Martín Secco 23 Nicolás Freitas

EMERGING ITALY
1 Riccardo Brugnara 2 Adrian Daniele 3 Roberto Tenga 4 Riccardo Michieletto 5 Filippo Gerosa 6 Federico Conforti (capt.) 7 Sebastian Negri 8 Renato Giammarioli 9 Simone Marinaro 10 Maicol Azzolini 11 Marco Susio 12 Enrico Lucchin 13 Francesco Menon 14 Gabriele Di Giulio 15 Andrea Menniti-Ippolito

16 Luhandre Luus 17 Paolo Buonfiglio 18 Giuseppe Di Stefano 19 Vittorio Flammini 20 Matteo Corazzi 21 Giorgio Bronzini 22 Paolo Pescetto 23 Andrea Bettin

Referee: Damián Schneider (UAR)

 

NAMIBIA vs ROMANIA
20:00 local, 17:00 GMT, 13:00 EDT

The Welwitschias have summoned a dozen World Cup squad members to their starting lineup, with another four on the bench. Bulls no8 Renaldo Bothma has been appointed captain with dynamic flanker Rohan Kitshoff and towering lock Tjiuee Uanivi also suiting up. Top class goal kicker Theuns Kotze will run out at flyhalf, and a threatening midfield pair are found in Johan Deysel and JC Greyling.

Romania, as ever, have stacked their roster with first choice players for the tournament. Stelian Burcea leads the side in the absence of Mihai Macovei, with a beefy pack set to roll out against Namibia. Abrasive flanker Viorel Lucaci is the smallest man in the forwards where Johan van Heerden will play on the side of the scrum rather than his usual second row position. Vastly experienced trio Vali Calafeteanu, Florin Vlaicu, and Catalin Fercu each boast more than 80 caps while there is a debut for former Tasman midfielder Jack Umaga.

NAMIBIA
1 Casper Viviers 2 Gerhard Lötter 3 Aranos Coetzee 4 Janco Venter 5 Tjiuee Uanivi 6 Rohan Kitshoff 7 Leneve Damens 8 Renaldo Bothma (capt.) 9 Eugene Jantjies 10 Theuns Kotze 11 Gino Wilson 12 Johan Deysel 13 JC Greyling 14 Malcolm Moore 15 Johann Tromp

16 Petri Burger 17 AJ de Klerk 18 Shaun du Preez 19 Ruan Ludick 20 Tinus du Plessis 21 Arthur Bouwer 22 Darryl de la Harpe 23 Heinrich Smit

ROMANIA
1 Constantin Pristavita 2 Otar Turashvili 3 Alexandru Tarus 4 Valentin Poparlan 5 Marius Antonescu 6 Johan van Heerden 7 Viorel Lucaci 8 Stelian Burcea (capt.) 9 Valentin Calafeteanu 10 Jody Rose 11 Ionut Dumitru 12 Florian Vlaicu 13 Jack Umaga 14 Stephen Shennan 15 Catalin Fercu

16 Andrei Radoi 17 Alexandru Gordas 18 Gigi Militaru 19 Andrei Iorea 20 Razvan Ailenei 21 Tudorel Bratu 22 Ionut Balaban 23 Nicolas Onutu

Referee: Lloyd Linton (SRU)