Brazil and Uruguay set for São Paulo

Los Teros travel to Brazil to take on Os Tupis at the Arena Barueri on Friday in the second round of the Americas Rugby Championship. The two are both in search of their first win of the tournament, with Uruguay losing 33-17 to Canada in Langford and Brazil coming up just short against Chile by a score of 25-22 in Santiago. The Tupis have beaten Los Teros on three previous occasions in their 22 tests since 1951, but have not been victorious since 1964. Uruguay has now won 16 straight against the Tupis, including a 48-9 result in Montevideo last April.

Uruguay has made only three changes to the team that played Canada, two enforced. New captain Juan Manuel Gaminara is forced to sit out with work commitments, with no8 Alejandro Nieto nominated to take over the leadership role and Gonzalo Soto to start on the flank. Gastón Mieres has returned to Coventry in England, replaced by Federico Favaro on the left wing. Pedro Deal comes into the midfield in place of Alberto Román in the only tactical change to the starting lineup.

In addition there are four changes to the bench. Ignacio Secco, Ignacio Dotti, Lukas Lacoste, and Martín Secco join the squad, of which only Dotti has previous test experience. Rafaél Mones, Rodolfo de Mula, Mathias Palomeque, and Manuel Blengio are the ones to drop out.

The Tupis meanwhile have made five changes to the run-on team, with two new players among the reserves. Yan Rosetti takes over from Daniel Danielewicz at hooker, and Cleber Días lines up on the flank, with captain João Luiz da Ros sliding to no8 as Nick Smith drops to the bench. Lucas Duque starts in place of Beukes Cremer at scrumhalf, and there are new wingers in Lucas Muller and Guilherme Coghetto. Lucas Tranquez and Stefano Giantorno are left out.

Duque’s selection at scrumhalf gives the Tupis two sets of brothers in the backline, with Moisés retained at centre and the Sancery twins, Felipe and Daniel, both set to sparkle once again. Professional soccer convert Mateus Estrela and Curitiba winger Yan Machado have been added to the bench.

The match kicks off at 8pm local time, 7pm Uruguay, 5pm EST, and will be broadcast live on ESPN3.

BRAZIL
1 Wilton Rebolo 2 Yan Rosetti 3 Jardel Vettorato 4 Lucas Piero 5 Luiz Vieira 6 Mark Jackson 7 Cleber Días 8 João Luiz da Ros (capt.) 9 Lucas Duque 10 David Harvey 11 Lucas Muller 12 Moisés Duque 13 Felipe Sancery 14 Guilherme Coghetto 15 Daniel Sancery

16 Daniel Danielewicz 17 Caique Silva 18 Vitor Ancina 19 Felipe Tissot 20 Nick Smith 21 Mateus Estrela 22 Laurent Bourda-Couhet 23 Yan Machado

URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti 2 Carlos Arboleya 3 Juan Echeverría 4 Franco Lamanna 5 Diego Magno 6 Gonzalo Soto 7 Matías Beer 8 Alejandro Nieto (capt.) 9 Guillermo Lijtenstein 10 Rodrigo Silva 11 Federico Favaro 12 Andrés Vilaseca 13 Pedro Deal 14 Leandro Leivas 15 Santiago Martínez

16 Germán Kessler 17 Facundo Gattas 18 Ignacio Secco 19 Ignacio Dotti 20 Lukas Lacoste 21 Santiago Arata 22 Martín Secco 23 Alberto Román

Referee: Damián Schneider (UAR)
Assistants: Xavier Vouga (CBRu) & Henrique Platais (CBRu)