Preview: Brazil XV vs Chile XV

The Brazil XV and Chile XV will battle-it-out on Sunday in Montevideo. They will do so in the penultimate match of the 2020 South American 4 Nations. Both have plenty to play for. The Brazil XV is looking to avoid a 0-3 record and the Chile XV are targeting a second win in the tournament.

Chilean Head Coach Pablo Lemoine has made six changes from Wednesday’s win over the Uruguay XV. Three of the alternations come in the front-row. Lemoine welcomes back Matías Dittus at tight head. Dittus was unable to face the Uruguay XV after he sustained knock to the head against the Argentina XV.

Dittus replaces Esteban Inostroza and joins Javier Carrasco, and Tomás Dussaillant up front. Iñaki Gurruchaga, and Augusto Bohme will feature as replacements. The five remaining starting forwards are unchanged from Wednesday.

Marcelo Torrealba remains at scrum-half. The Major League Rugby player will partner Santiago Videla in the halves. Videla moves from inside center. It sees a reshuffle as Francisco Urroz moves from fly half to fullback and Franco Velarde from wing to inside center. The final change sees Julio Blanc back to start on the left wing.

Brazilian Head Coach Fernando Portugal is experimenting. He has named regular loose head Lucas Abud at hooker. This sees a switch made as Rugby United New York hooker Wilton Rebolo will play loose head. Matheus Rocha is retained at tight head to partner Abud and Rebolo.

Rafael Teixeira is out through suspension. It also sees reshuffling with Yan Rosetti moving from hooker to flanker. He will be joined by Adrio de Melo and André Arruda in the back-row.

There is also notable movement in the backs. Lucas Spago replaces Lucas Tranquez at fly half. It means regular fly half Josh Reeves will play in all three matches as a replacement. Meanwhile, Fullback Daniel Sancery moves to the left wing  and scrum-half Laurent Bourda-Couhet moves to fullback.

Performances thus far indicate that the Chile XV are favorites. Los Cóndores very nearly defeated the Argentina XV and recovered from a slow start to control the play against the Uruguay XV. The Brazil XV had their moments against the Uruguay XV, though lacked discipline against the Argentina XV. The Chile XV has shown excellent discipline thus far. ARN projects a Chile XV victory by 9 points.

 

TEAMS

BRAZIL XV
1 Wilton Rebolo, 2 Lucas Abud, 3 Matheus Rocha, 4 Gabriel Oliveira, 5 Gabriel Paganini, 6 Yan Rosseti, 7 Adrio Luiz, 8 André Arruda, 9 Douglas Rauth, 10 Lucas Spago, 11 Daniel Sancery, 12 Moisés Duque, 13 Felipe Sancery (capt.) 14 Roberto Tenório, 15 Laurent Bourda-Couhet

Replacements: 16 Alexandre Alves, 17 Willian Endy, 18 Henrique Ferreira, 19 Kauã Guimarães, 20 Devon Müller, 21 Felipe Cunha, Josh Reeves, Lorenzo Massari, Daniel Silva, Guilherme Dias, Matheus Cruz

CHILE XV
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Tomás Dussaillant, 3 Matías Dittus, 4 Clemente Saavedra, 5 Javier Eissmann, 6 Martín Sigren (capt.), 7 Ignacio Silva, 8 Nicolás Garafulic, 9 Marcelo Torrealba, 10 Santiago Videla, 11 Julio Blanc, 12 Franco Velarde, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Matías Galafulic, 15 Francisco Urroz

Replacements: 16 Augusto Bohme, 17 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 18 Salvador Lues, 19 Santiago Pedrero, 20 Raimundo Martínez, 21 Alfonso Escobar, 22 Jan Hasenlechner, 23 Anton Petrowitsch, 24 José Ignacio Larenas, 25 Rodrigo Fernández, 26 Diego Warnken

Date: Sunday, October 25
Kick-Off: 2pm
Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo
Referee: Francisco González (Uruguay)
Assistant Referees: Nehuén Jauri Rivero (Argentina), Frank Méndez (Chile)