Hanover, NH – Things are starting to shape up after the third week of the Americas Rugby Championship. Argentina XV currently finds itself sharing the top spot with the USA. The rest of the standings are what we would expect except that Brazil has managed to avoid the last place spot after its upset win in week one to Chile who close out the list.
Chile vs. USA
The Americans begin their South American tour in Santiago against Los Cóndores. The Eagles will lose their two outstanding locks, Nate Brakely and Nick Civetta, and in their place Matt Jensen and Siaosi Mahoni will fill in. Interestingly, Nate Augspurger will captain for his first time while Todd Clever will take the role as vice-captain.
The Chileans have turned to extreme measures in hopes of reversing their fortunes with 12 new players being called up to replace spots from last weeks squad. Manuel Gurruchaga will captain the team this
week. Chile is betting on new faces to be the spark they need, but will inconsistency in the roster hurt them?
Despite a few personnel changes of its own, the US is coming off a strong victory against Canada last week and it looks like the US should easily be able to take care of a struggling Chilean side.
USA
1-Ben Tarr, 2-James Hilterbrand, 3-Chris Baumann, 4-Matt Jensen, 5-Siaosi Mahoni, 6-Todd Clever, 7-Tony Lamborn, 8-Cam Dolan, 9-Shaun Davies, 10-Ben Cima, 11-Nate Augspurger, 12-JP Eloff, 13-Bryce Campbell, 14-Spike Davis, 15-Mike Te’o
16-Peter Malcolm, 17-Anthony Purpura, 18-Olive Kilifi, 19-Hanco Germishuys, 20-David Tameilau, 21-Will Magie, 22-Calvin Whiting, 23-Andrew Turner
Chile
1-Vittorio Lastra, 2-Manuel Gurruchaga, 3-José Tomás Munita, 4-Mario Mayol, 5-Nikola Bursic, 6-Arturo Seeman, 7-Anton Petrowitsch, 8-Manuel Dagnino, 9-Sergio Bascuñan, 10-Francisco González Moller, 11-Tomás Ianiszewski, 12-Simón Pardakhty, 13-Franco Velarde, 14-Matías Contreras, 15-Pablo Verschae
16-Rodrigo Moya, 17-Sebastián Valech, 18-Ernestro Ugarte, 19-Nelson Calderón, 20-Eduardo Orpis, 21-Beltrán Vergara, 22-Jorge Castillo, 23-Mauricio Urrutia
Brazil vs. Argentina XV
Brazil will face their biggest challenge of the tournament when they travel to Patagonia to face the Argentina XV. Interestingly, the match in Ushuaia will be the southernmost international rugby match ever played. Os Tupis will be looking to continue it’s strong performance this year and will be making six changes to its roster. Noticeably, Yan Rosetti will be returning from an injury to reclaim his spot at hooker and Nick Smith will continue his leadership as captain.
Argentina will be making a number of changes to their side this weekend. Rernando Luna and Bautista Delguy depart from the team to join up with the Pumas 7s in Las Vegas and Vancouver. Emiliano
Boffelli will return to the pitch for the first time since his knee injury last year. Lautaro Bavaro will continue to captain the squad.
While Brazil has shown improvement this year, I don’t see Argentina XV being challenged this match.
Brazil
Wilton Rebolo, Yan Rosetti, Caíque Silva, Gabriel Paganini, Diego López, João Luiz da Ros, André Arruda, Nick Smith, Matheus Cruz, Josh Reeves, De Wet van Niekerk, Moisés Duque, Felipe Sancery, Ariel Rodrigues, Daniel Sancery, Daniel Danielewicz, Vitor Ancina, Pedro Bengaló, Lucas Piero, Matheus Daniel, Beukes Cremer, Luan Smanio, Robert Tenório
Argentina
1- Santiago Álvarez, 2-Gaspar Baldunciel, 3-Lautaro Bavaro, 4-Lautaro Bazán Vélez, 5-Eduardo Bello, 6-Emiliano Boffelli, 7-Marcelo Brandi, 8-Franco Brarda, 9-Alejo Brem, 10-Rodrigo Bruni, 11-Sebastián Cancelliere, 12-Juan Cappiello, 13-Franco Cuaranta, 14-Tomás de la Vega, 15-Facundo Gigena
16-Juan Cruz González, 17-Tomás Granella, 18-Ignacio Larrague, 19-Santiago Medrano, 20-Domingo Miotti, 21-Franco Molina, 22-Santiago Montagner, 23-Pedro Ortega, 24-Mariano Romanini, 25-Germán Schulz, 26-Segundo Tuculet
Uruguay vs. Canada
Unlike many other teams this week, Uruguay will make few changes for their test this weekend. Juan Manuel Gaminara will take the role as captain again. The two changes are Gastón Mieres, recovered from shoulder surgery, and Diego Magno who enter as reserves.
Canada is coming off a disappointing loss to the United States and will be looking to bounce back and make an run the rest of the season for one of the top two spots in the standings. The Canadian side looks strong with Brett Beukeboom of the Cornish Pirates of the RFU Championship and Conor Trainor of the French Pro D2 league returning to the Canucks. Gordon McRorie will return to the starting lineup as scrum half and captain.
This has the potential to be a tight match. I give the edge to Canada, but don’t count out Uruguay.
Uruguay
1-Mateo Sanguinetti, 2-Martín Espiga, 3-Juan Echeverría, 4-Ignacio Dotti, 5-Diego Ayala, 6-Juan Manuel Gaminara, 7-Franco Lammana, 8-Alejandro Nieto, 9-Santiago Arata, 10-Germán Albanell, 11-Nicolás Freitas, 12-Andrés Vilaseca, 13-Juan Manuel Cat, 14-Leandro Leivas, 15-Rodrigo Silva
16-Facundo Gattas, 17-Matías Benítez, 18-Mario Sagario, 19-Juan Diego Ormaechea, 20-Diego Magno, 21-Guillermo Lijtenstein, 22-Gastón Gibernau, 23-Gastón Mieres
Canada
1-Rob Brouwer, 2-Ray Barkwill, 3-Matt Tierney, 4-Brett Beukeboom, 5-Reegan O’Gorman, 6-Clay Panga, 7-Lucas Rumball, 8-Admir Cejvanovic, 9-Gordon McRorie, 10-Robbie Povey, 11-Kainoa Lloyd, 12-Nick Blevins, 13-Conor Trainor, 14-Dan Moor, 15-Brock Staller
16-Eric Howard, 17-Djustice Sears-Duru, 18-Cole Keith, 19-Liam Chisholm, 20-Matt Beukeboom, 21-Phil Mack, 22-Gradyn Bowd, 23-Guiseppe du Toit
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