SLAR Season Guide – Selknam

The first Chilean professional rugby team, Selknam will play in season three of the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR). The team did well in both 2020 and 2021 and progress carried over to the national test team, Los Cóndores.

SLAR 2022 will be the third season of the South American professional rugby competition. Selknam are a foundation team. The team had the honor of playing in the first-ever SLAR fixture. The Chilean side upset Peñarol in Montevideo to immediately shake-up South American rugby.

Selknam did well again in 2021. The team produced another upset win against Peñarol and finished the regular season in third overall. This saw Selknam facing Peñarol in the Semi Finals and ultimately being eliminated. The outcome of the 2021 SLAR season means that Selknam are the 5th seed for SLAR 2022.

 

COACHING STAFF

Nicolás Bruzzone remains Head Coach of Selknam. The 36-year-old is a former Rugby Sevens player for Argentina. He was uncapped by Los Pumas but did tour with the test team. His playing position was scrum-half. Bruzzone replaced Pablo Lemoine for SLAR 2021 with Lemoine focusing his attention entirely on the test team. The omve proved to be successful as Selknam had a solid SLAR 2021 campaign and Los Cóndores made history by eliminating Canada from the RWC qualifiers and by winning an away series over Russia.

NEWCOMERS

The player roster has been boosted for SLAR 2022. The major incoming name is Marcelo Torrealba. The starting test fly half is back in Chile following his time with Austin Gilgronis in Major League Rugby. Torrealba is certain to feature for Chile vs the USA in the RWC 2023 qualifiers in July. Meanwhile, there are spots for many of Chile’s upcoming players. Examples on the roster include COBS hooker Diego Escobar, PWCC second-rower Augusto Sarmiento, and Old John’s winger Cristóbal Game.

 

DEPARTED

Changes to the Selknam roster from 2021 to 2022 have been less significant when compared to other teams. Players have departed to either return to Argentina or to take-up contracts abroad. Among them are Chileans such as Ramón Ayarza (Charente, FR), Augusto Bohme (Seattle Seawolves, U.S.), Franco Velarde (El Salvador, ES) and Clemente Saavedra (UE Santboiana, ES). Argentines, from the 2021 roster, Maximiliano Filizzola, Santiago Portillo and Bautista Staville now play in Italy.

IMPORTS

Selknam’s SLAR 2022 roster is Chilean-centric. There are four names who have joined the team from abroad for the new season. Second-rower Franco Molina has arrived from Los Jaguares XV. He was among the leading second-rowers in SLAR 2021 and is a fitting replacement for Santiago Portillo. The others from abroad are to be SLAR rookies. Tight Head Franco Pechia and fly half Lucas Fertonani have both joined from Argentina while Juan Zuccarino is from the oldest rugby club from outside of Europe, MVCC in Uruguay.

POSSIBLE STARTING XV

1 – Vittorio Lastra
2 – Tomás Dussaillant
3 – Matías Dittus
4 – Javier Eissmann
5 – Franco Molina
6 – Martín Sigren
7 – Ignacio Silva
8 – Alfonso Escobar
9 – Marcelo Torrealba
10 – Rodrigo Fernández
11 – Julio Blanc
12 – Matías Garafulic
13 – Domingo Saavedra
14 – Nicolás Garafulic
15 – Santiago Videla