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The feature match of the opening round of SLAR 2022 sees Selknam at home against the Olímpia Lions. The teams were both beaten Semi Finalists in the 2021 season and traded wins during the regular season.
Selknam’s 2021 SLAR season was a critical component in Chile’s on-field successes last year. Los Cóndores completed a historic win over Canada and an away series in over Russia. The former result saw Canada miss out on qualifying for a Men’s Rugby World Cup for the first time and means Chile is closer than ever to qualifying.
Selknam’s roster contains most, but not all, of Chile’s front-line test players. A working effort towards the July winner goes to the World Cup series against the USA sees Selknam operating with a policy that will give many opportunities and ensure players are fresh rather than overplayed.
The team named to face the Olímpia Lions is without first choice flankers Martín Sigren and Ignacio Silva. This sees the promising Raimundo Martínez, and Tomás Orchard, joining Alfonso Escobar in the back-row. Experienced players start elsewhere throughout the forwards.
Marcelo Torrealba makes his SLAR debut at scrum-half. In a homecoming, Torrealba is back in Chile following an extensive stay with the Austin Gilgronis in Major League Rugby. He will partner Rodrigo Fernández to give SLAR a first taste of the halves pairing at proved so potent for Chile in 2021.
One of the differences in the line-ups is that Selknam’s starting players are entirely homegrown and all are Chileans. The Olímpia Lions’ have a five Paraguayans and ten Argentines in their starting XV. The Paraguayans are props Daniel Cabral, and Luis Enrique Quinteros, second-rower Mariano Garcete, fly half Sebastián Urbieta, and winger Juan González.
Four of the Argentines starting for the Olímpia Lions also played for the Paraguayan side in SLAR 2021. They are hooker Mariano Muntaner, flanker Ignacio Gandini, scrum-half Ignacio Inschauspe and center Francisco Díez. Gandini will lead the side in 2022. He will be joined by Mariano Romanini and Federico Simondi in a strong all-Argentine back-row.
This fixtures promises to have numerous head-to-head battles of note. It is the battle of the n8’s that ARN places as the feature match-up as Alfonso Escobar takes-on Mariano Romanini in a battle of two highly respected names.
The two prior matches between Selknam and the Olímpia Lions took place during the 2021 regular season. The Chilean side were 29-16 winners at home while the Olímpia Lions completed a 24-21 upset win in Montevideo.
TEAMS
SELKNAM
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Tomás Dussaillant, 3 Vittorio Lastra, 4 Augusto Sarmiento, 5 Javier Eissmann, 6 Raimundo Martínez, 7 Tomás Orchard, 8 Alfonso Escobar, 9 Marcelo Torrealba, 10 Rodrigo Fernández, 11 Matías Garafulic, 12 José Larenas, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Nicolás Garafulic, 15 Francisco Urroz
Replacements: 16 Jorge Delgado, 17 Franco Pechia, 18 Matías Dittus, 19 Santiago Pedrero, 20 Santiago Edwards, 21 Lukas Carvallo, 22 Juan Zuccarino, 23 Luca Strabucchi
OLÍMPIA LIONS
1 Daniel Cabral, 2 Mariano Muntaner, 3 Luis Enrique Quinteros, 4 Lorenzo Colidio, 5 Mariano Garcete, 6 Federico Simondi, 7 Ignacio Gandini (capt.), 8 Mariano Romanini, 9 Ignacio Inschauspe, 10 Sebastián Urbieta, 11 Juan González, 12 Estanislao Arrias, 13 Francisco Díez, 14 Julián Quetglas, 15 Diego Walter
Replacements: 16 Conrado Iglesias, 17 Ezequiel Reyes, 18 Estefano Aranda, 19 Agustín Toth, 20 Álvaro Biscay, 21 Matías Sauze, 22 Ignacio González, 23 Nicolás Hogg
Date: Sunday, March 13
Venue: Estadio Elías Figueroa (Valparaíso, Chile)
Kickoff: 6:00pm (Santiago, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Brasília), 4:00pm (Bogotá)
Referee: Francisco González (Uruguay)
Assistant Referees: Cauã Ricardo (Brazil); Nerea Livoni
TMO: Tomãs Bertazza (Argentina)
Broadcast: ESPN America Latina, ESPN Brasil
Historical Results:
2021-04-16 – Olímpia Lions 24, Selknam 21 (Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo, Uruguay)
2021-03-16 – Selknam 29, Olímpia Lions 16 (Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile)
