Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
The 5th placed Yacare host the 4th placed Selknam on Saturday. Both teams are coming off losses last weekend. The vital Super Rugby Americas fixture will be played in the Paraguayan capital of Asunción.
With Los Pampas having upset Peñarol on Wednesday, the gap between the top two and the rest has been altered. The Buenos Aires team are on 17 points behind Peñarol on 24 and leaders Los Dogos on 26. Selknam and Yacare go into their match with 11 and 10 points respectively.
The table positions means that, at this stage, Yacare vs Selknam is very much a game to pencil in Semi Finalists. Yacare have named a competitive line-up for Saturday’s showdown in Asunción.
Argentina XV scrum-half Ignacio Inchauspe will again captain the side. He will be joined by countrymen including fly half Federico Cacciabue, center Ramiro Amarilla, fullback Tomás Mac Call. The trio are all dangerous with ball in hand.
Additional Argentine players will feature in the forwards. Lucas Noguera Paz is the notable name. He has 43 caps for Los Pumas and played at Rugby World Cup 2015. Countrymen Mariano Muntaner, and Facundo Pomponio join him in the front-row.
The second-row will consist of the Paraguayan duo of Mariano Garcete and Ignacio Martínez. They will lock the scrum ahead of the Argentine back-row formation of Felipe Villagrán, Juan Cruz Pérez Rachel, and Felipe Puertas.
There are no Argentines in Selknam’s line-up. All members of the Selknam roster are Chileans. It is by design as Super Rugby Americas is Chile’s primary preparation for Rugby World Cup 2023. The line-up named is a strong one. It features the key returns of Santiago Videla, Clemente Saavedra and Alfonso Escobar.
Videla starts at fullback. Despite him back in the side Matías Garafulic retains the captaincy. Videla and Rodrigo Fernández will act as dual play-makers against Yacare. They will have potent runners to work with including Garafulic, Domingo Saavedra and Clemente Armstrong.
Clemente Saavedra is back to play in his natural position of lock. He featured at flanker and N8 in matches earlier this season. Alfonso Escobar will be joined by the highly promising pair of Ernesto Tchimino, and Raimundo Martínez in the back-row.
Not only is the match significant for competition points, it falls at a time when both teams are in need of a win. Yacare lost their previous two matching, falling 22-05 to Los Pampas and 45-12 to Peñarol. Selknam went from winning their opening two matches to losing the next three. They fell 24-10 to Los Dogos, 30-24 to Os Cobras and 35-24 to Peñarol.
Saturday’s match will be the first between Selknam and Yacare. It is not the first Chile vs Paraguay match professional match though. The prior years saw Selknam facing the Olímpia Lions four times in the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR). The teams split the results with two wins and two losses each.
TEAMS
YACARE
1 Lucas Noguera Paz, 2 Mariano Muntaner, 3 Facundo Pomponio, 4 Ignacio Martínez, 5 Mariano Garcete, 6 Felipe Villagrán, 7 Juan Cruz Pérez Rachel, 8 Felipe Puertas, 9 Ignacio Inchauspe (capt.), 10 Federico Cacciabue, 11 Juan González, 12 Sebastián Urbieta, 13 Ramiro Amarilla, 14 Federico Gauna, 15 Tomás Mac Call
Replacements: 16 Julian Martín, 17 Camilo Blasco, 18 Rolando Portillo, 19 Álvaro Báez, 20 Carlos Plate, 21 Diego Miña, 22 Juan David Agedelo, 23 Estanislao Gómez
SELKNAM
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Augusto Bohme, 3 Vittorio Lastra, 4 Clemente Saavedra, 5 Javier Eissmann, 6 Ernesto Tchimino, 7 Raimundo Martínez, 8 Alfonso Escobar, 9 Nicolás Herreros, 10 Rodrigo Fernández, 11 Matías Garafulic (capt.), 12 José Ignacio Larenas, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Clemente Armstrong, 15 Santiago Videla
Replacements: 16 Diego Escobar, 17 Esteban Inostroza Landero, 18 Lucas Bordigoni, 19 Santiago Pedrero, 20 Ignacio Silva, 21 Marcelo Torrealba, 22 Francisco Urroz, 23 Pablo Casas
Date: Saturday, April 01
Kick-Off: 7pm (PY); 6pm (CL)
Venue: Héroes de Curupayty, Asunción (PY)
Referee: Francisco González (UY)
Assistant Referees: Marquise Goodwin (US); Adrián Bogado (PY)
TMO: Víctor Silvero (PY)
HISTORIC RESULTS
April 23, 2002 – Selknam 41-19 Olímpia Lions (Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo, UY)
March 13, 2022 – Selknam 20-22 Olímpia Lions (Estadio Elías Figueroa (Valparaíso, Chile)
April 16, 2021 – Olímpia Lions 24-21 Selknam (Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo, Uruguay)
March 16, 2021 – Selknam 29-16 Olímpia Lions (Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile)
