Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
The rivalry between Uruguay, and the Argentina XV will continue on Saturday. Despite it being a non-capped international the players selected for both countries gives the match a feel of being a true test match.
Uruguay’s line-up to face the Argentina XV is close to the genuine article which will take to the field in Japan for the RWC. Quite simply none of the starting line-up is likely to not make the roster. Missing though are several players, namely Felipe Berchesi, Rodrigo Capó Ortega, Alejandro Nieto, and regular captain Juan Manuel Gaminara.
Nonetheless with such improvement from Los Teros, and the success of the Charrúa High Performance system there are names stepping unlike never before. At flanker this is evident with a start for Manuel Ardao. The outstanding u20s player was rushed to hooker yet it is his natural position which remains his best.
Ardao will join Santiago Civetta, and Manuel Diana in the back-row. The exciting unit will be playing behind Ignacio Dotti, and Manuel Leindekar, both of whom have been tremendous success stories since rising to the senior side post RWC 2015.
In tha backs Agustín Ormaechea will start ahead of Santiago Arata. He will do so inside Juan Manuel Cat, arguably the most improved Tero of 2019. Cat’s regular mid-field partner, Andrés Vilaseca will captain the side outside Cat rather than inside him as Cat usually plays for Uruguay at outside center.
In the absence of the Toronto Arrows duo of Leandro Leivas, and Gastón Mieres the back-three will consist of Nicolás Freitas, Federico Favaro, and Rodrigo Silva.
The Argentina XV have four Jaguares, past or present, in their starting XV – Bautista Ezcurra, Diego Fortuny, Martín Landajo, and Manuel Montero. The line-up also has stand-out players from throughout the year including Lucas Mensa, Agustín Segura, and Jerónimo Ureta.
Mensa has been tremendous and his name in Ledesma’s training roster for the Rugby Championship did not come as a great surprise. All eyes, though, will be on the Jaguares players. For them it is make-or-break time. They need stand-out performances to be in the frame for RWC selection.
Both Uruguay and the Argentina XV disappointed on Sunday. Uruguay found themselves 17-0 behind against Namibia while the Argentina XV if even worse against Russia. They would come back only to fall short.
The respective defeats means that the race for the Nations Cup title remains wide-open. For both the Argentina XV, and Uruguay there can be no more failures. They require a win to secure the title.
Entering the match as slight favorites will be the Argentina XV. Uruguay’s line-up is notably improved to that which faced Namibia. With the changes they will be a stronger side and will ask serious questions. The Argentina XV thereby enter as favorites but in a reduced manner compared to the ARC. They should win by 10 points.
TEAMS
Uruguay
1 Facundo Gattas, 2 Germán Kessler, 3 Juan Echeverría, 4 Ignacio Dotti, 5 Manuel Leindekar, 6 Santiago Civetta, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Agustín Ormaechea, 10 Juan Manuel Cat, 11 Nicolás Freitas, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt.), 13 Tomas Inciarte, 14 Federico Favaro, 15 Rodrigo Silva
Replacements: 16 Guillermo Pujadas, 17 Mateo Sanguinetti, 18 Juan Pedro Rombys, 19 Diego Magno, 20 Leandro Segredo, 21 Santiago Arata, 22 Felipe Etcheverry, 23 Agustín Della Corte
ARGENTINA XV
1 Nicolás Solveyra, 2 Diego Fortuny, 3 Martín Fernández Segurotti, 4 Ignacio Calas, 5 Jerónimo Ureta, 6 Santiago Montagner, 7 Lautaro Bavaro (capt.), 8 Santiago Portillo, 9 Martín Landajo, 10 Martín Roger, 11 Manuel Montero, 12 Lucas Mensa, 13 Agustín Segura, 14 Bautista Ezcurra, 15 Facundo Cordero
Replacements: 16 Leonel Oviedo, 17 Rodrigo Martínez, 18 Lucas Favre, 19 Franco Molina, 20 Lucas Santa Cruz, 21 Manuel Nogues, 22 Teo Castiglioni, 23 Julián Domínguez
Date: Saturday June 15
Kick-Off: 6:00pm (Local)
Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo
Referee: Frank Murphy (Ireland)
