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Los Jaguares XV and Peñarol meet in the final round of the SLAR regular season. They may meet for a third time, depending on the resutls of the Semi Finals. Their match in Montevideo on Saturday gives players from both teams a final opportunity to press for selection in the team that will compete in next weekend’s Semi Finals.
Peñarol will be captained by Andrés Vilaseca from inside center. He re-forms a center partnership with Tomás Inciarte. The young Uruguayan pairing of Juan Manuel Alonso and Mateo Viñals start on the wings withe RWC 2015 and 2019 veteran Rodrigo Silva playing fullback.
The five Uruguayans are joined by two Argentines in the backs; Manuel Nogúes and Martín Roger start in the halves. Two further Argentines players will start in the forwards. Nahuel Milan will play second-row and Conrado Roura starts at N8. They join six Uruguayan internationals.
Los Jaguares XV have three Pumas in their starting line-up. Up front Juan Pablo Zeiss starts at tight head. Francisco Gorrissen will play flanker and Felipe Ezcurra captains the side from scrum-half. All three were a part of Argentina’s most recent test match, a draw against Australia in Sydney in what was the final round of the 2020 Tri Nations.
The twelve other starting players are all aspiring for higher honors. The opportunity of playing in SLAR provides them all with a chance to impress Mario Ledesma. A number of players will be in the frame for places on the roster for Los Pumas for the July Internationals.
There are also players involved for the first time. Injuries saw a call-up for Pedro Rubiolo. The teenager has already been compared to Marcos Kremer. Meanwhile, the gifted Tomás Malanos starts on the right wing. In short, players have everything to play for.
Peñarol worked tirelessly in their earlier meeting against Los Jaguares XV. It was not enough to compete for a win; Los Jaguares XV were 46-17 winners. A similar scoreline is plausible for Saturday’s meeting. ARN projects a Jaguares XV win by 30 points.
Kickoff is set for 6:00pm local time, Asunción, Buenos Aires and Brasília; 5:00pm Santiago; and 4pm Bogotá. Live broadcasts will be provided by ESPN in the competing countries.
PEÑAROL
1 Juan Echeverría, 2 Facundo Gattas, 3 Diego Arbelo, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Nahuel Milan, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Conrado Roura, 9 Manuel Nogúes, 10 Martín Roger, 11 Juan Manuel Alonso, 12 Andrés Vilaseca, 13 Tomás Inciarte, 14 Mateo Viñals, 15 Rodrigo Silva
Replacements: 16 Guillermo Pujadas, 17 Ignacio Peculo, 18 Matías Benítez, 19 Eric Dosantos, 20 Marcos Chamyan, 21 Carlos Deus, 22 Federico Favaro, 23 Santiago Álvarez
JAGUARES XV
1 Francisco Minervino, 2 Bautista Bernasconi, 3 Juan Pablo Zeiss, 4 Pedro Rubiolo, 5 Franco Molina, 6 Francisco Gorrissen, 7 Lautaro Bavaro, 8 Tomás Bernasconi, 9 Felipe Ezcurra (capt.), 10 Tomás Albornoz, 11 Martín Cancelliere, 12 Teo Castiglioni, 13 Tomás Cubilla, 14 Tomás Malanos, 15 Gerónimo Prisciantelli
Replacements: 16 Martín Vaca, 17 Luciano Torres, 18 Joel Sclavi, 19 Joaquín Oviedo, 20 Ignacio Ruiz, 21 Rafael Iriarte, 22 Juan Bautista Daireaux, 23 Juan Pablo Castro
Date: Saturday, May 01
Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo
Kickoff: 6:00pm (Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Brasília), 5:00pm (Santiago), 4:00pm (Bogotá)
Referee: Nahuén Jauri Rivero (Argentina)
Broadcast: ESPN 3 (America Latina), ESPN Play (Brazil)
Historical Results:
2021-04-04 Jaguares XV 46, Peñarol 17 (Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile)
