Uruguay 27-15 Brazil

Juan Ormaechea

Los Teros of Uruguay complered a hard fought victory over os Tupis of Brazil earlier this afternoon in Santiago del Chile. It was the third and final match of both countries in the 2012 South American Championship. Brazil went into the match as major underdogs following the teams 11-0 hammering at the hands of Argentina on Wednesday. Uruguay had lost by half as many points against the same team on Sunday and had clawed its way to a 27-26 victory over Chile on Wednesday. Uruguay´s win continues the pecking order of CONSUR rugby with Los Teros number two to Argentina ahead of Chile in third and Brazil in fourth. For Brazil the loss against Argentina will be what the country´s media take in but the real story is the teams competitiveness against both Chile and Uruguay. Three years ago both sides were defeating Brazil by over 60 points.  But today´s match was a sign that the extent of Brazil´s loss vs Argentina has more to do with the schedule, of playing three tests in six days, than the teams actual ability. 

Uruguay scored first with a try and looked like it would be the first of many, however it was not to be as Brazil played the best rugby of the first half and went into the interval leading the match 12-8. Uruguay came back in the second half but were made to battle it out hard by the Tupis and it took a penalty try to give Uruguay the lead. As the second half progressed Uruguay´s superior fitness was evident and it worked out to the advantage of the favorites as they closed out the game to win by 12 points.

Los Teros scored four tries to two with fullback Jerónimo Etcheverry scoring the first of the match. Backrower Juan Ormaechea scored Los Teros´ second try while the penalty try was followed by a try to Diego Magno. Etcheverry converted two of Uruguay´s tries and also kicked a penalty. Brazil´s two tries went to Daniel Danielewicz and Daniel Gregg. The French bound Moisés Duque kicked a conversion and Gregg scored a second half penalty. Gregg´s try was the highlight of the match with the Niteroi flyhalf underlining why he has been moved from wing to flyhalf for the national side.

Argentina team to face Chile

Captain Leo Senatore

The third and final round of the 2012 CONSUR A Championship will be played today in Santiago del Chile with the hosts taking on Los Pumas. The Argentine coach, Daniel Hourcade has again rotated his side with elven changes to the team that defeated Brazil 111-0 on Wednesday. The captaincy will remain with Leonardo Senatore who is to play his third international match in six days after facing Uruguay on Sunday. He will be joined in the backrow by Roberto Bruno who was named in the Pumas squad for the June internationals.  Chile are coming off a 27-26 loss against Uruguay and need to defeat Argentina today to finish in second place. unless Brazil can help by defeating Los Teros. An Argentine win will see Los Pumas again win the South American Championship. 

Argentina

1 Roberto Tejerizo, 2 Bruno Postiglioni, 3 Gastón Cortéz, 4 Santiago Guzmàn, 5 Benjamín Macome, 6 Lisandro Ahualli de Chazal, 7 Rodrigo Bruno, 8 Leonardo Senatore (Captain), 9 Martín Landajo, 10 Valentín Cruz, 11 Diego Palma, 12 Matías Orlando, 13 Santiago Craig, 14 Facundo Barrea, 15 Román Miralles

Reserves: 16 Martín Garcia Veiga, 17 Germán Aráoz, 18 César Frutero, 19 Javier Ortega Desio, 20 Tomas Cubelli, 21 Javier Rojas, 22 Manuel Montero

Aviva Premiership Final Preview

The Champion of English rugby will be crowned today as the home of the RFU, Twickenham stages the 2012 Aviva Premiership Final to be contested by the Harlequins and the Leicester Tigers. Should the Quins be victorious it would be the first ever championship title for the London based side. While a win for the Tigers would see England´s most successful club continue to expand on its untouchable resume in English rugby. Leicester are nine time champions of England, three more than the nearest best clubs, Bath and the London Wasps who have both been champions six times. Leicester´s last championship victory came in 2010 while the club was defeated by Saracens in the 2011 final. 

Regardless of who wins, the Final will be a further illustration of the strength of Argentine rugby with Pumas players being present in both teams. The Harlequins will have a Pumas secondrower on the bench as Tomás Vallejos Cinalli looks to break into the squad for The Rugby Championship. The Leicester Tigers have two Pumas in the starting lineup with Horacio Agulla set to play his final match for the club. He will start on the right wing while Marcos Ayerza is to start at loosehead prop. Argentine-Italian tighthead prop, Martín Castrogiovanni has been named on the bench. 

Prediction: Leicester to win by 8 points. 

Top 14 Barrage Preview

Castres vs Montpellier

The Top 14 barrage will kick-off shortly with the first of two knock-out matches being taking place in France. Today´s match sees Castres play host to Montpellier in what is a rematch of last seasons barrage encounter in which Martín Bustos Moyano booted Montpellier into a first ever Top 14 Semi Final. Ther one time capped Argentine winger will start the match on the left wing, retaining the goalkicking duties and will be joined by four other Pumas with Juan Figallo starting at loosehead prop and Santiago Fernández at inside centre, just like they did 12 months ago. The trio will be joined by another Pumas forward and a back in the starting XV with Lucas González Amorosino playing fullback and Agustín Creevy playing hooker. The form of all five players has been impressive this season and all will feature for Los Pumas in The Rugby Championship. A sixth Argentine player, Maximilano Bustos is also on the Montpellier card, as a replacement. He is uncapped despite having been a part of the Argentine squad at New Zealand 2011. The opposition, Castres, do not have any Pumas but do have a South American with Uruguay´s Rodrigo Capó Ortega on the bench.

Toulon vs Racing Métro

The second barrage play-off match will be played on Saturday with Toulon playing host to Racing Métro. Both sides will have Pumas players with Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe starting at 8 for Toulon and to other Juan´s starting for the Paris based opposition. Pulling the strings at flyhalf will be Juan Martín Hernández who has been impvoing this season after a slow start and wil be joined by a player who 21 months ago was an unknown, Juan Imhoff. The young speedster will play on the left wing while former Pumas backrower, Alvaro Galindo has been named on the bench.

Argentina Squad for June

Santiago ´Tati´ Phelan

The UAR´s announcement of the first senior squad for 2012 took place yesterday afternoon. It was highlighted by the inclusion of the veteran pair of loosehead prop Rodrigo Roncero and flyhalf and captain Felipe Contepomi, veterans of four Rugby World Cup´s. Both players are not going to be playing for their country after 2012. Their selection, however, was more about experience than anything else as Santiago Phelan named a squad than can be described as nothing other than under strength. Phelan has rested World Cup players with Contepomi and Roncero only being joined by Julio Farías Cabello, Genaro Fessia, Agustín Gozio and Leonardo Senatore to give Los Pumas just six players from the squad that competed at Rugby World Cup 2011.
     
In place of the European professionals, Phelan has taken the bold step of naming 16 players from Los Pampas XV. No players from the play-offs of the Top 14 and the Aviva Premiership have been included which would appear to reflect the negotiations between the UAR and European clubs to not over play players. It also creates a problem, however, with players participating in The Rugby Championship sseemingly entering the international season without playing other tests. Martín Bustos Moyano, for instance remains a strong contender to be Argentina´s starting winger despite only having ever played one international four years ago. While he has been let out due to the Top 14 barrage, Phelan has gone for Top 14 players from Agen, Biarritz, Brive and Stade Français as well as Aviva Premiership players from Exeter, the Harlequins and Sale. The most notable inclusion being Ignacio Mieres who had a tremendous season at flyhalf for Exeter seeing the club qualify for the 2012-2013 Heineken Cup. He now looks set to form a 10-12 combination with Felipe Contepomi and is likely to also be the goalkicker. The pair are likely to be backed up by Benjamin Urdapilleta who played in the centre for the Harlequins over the past two seasons.

But, not all players from outside the leading Top 14 sides have been selected. While Contepomi is in there is no Marcelo Bosch or Martín Rodríguez Gurruchaga with the World Cup pair both being rested ahead of The Rugby Championship. Neither Biarritz not Stade Français will compete in the Top 14 play-offs which suggests firmly that the June internationals should indeed be the end of the road for Contepomi who is set to pass the torch. Of course, Phelan could very well make changes during June to field an entirely different team for the French tests. However, neither Italy nor France will be at full strength, suggesting that the squad Phelan has named is actually not as weak as it may appear to be. To the contrary, the June tests are going to be far from what they could be.

Curiously there is no place in the squad for Brive scrumhalf Agustín Figuerola, Bordeaux winger Rafael Carballo or Agen centre Miguel Avramovic. The non-selection of these players appears to suggest that their international careers are over with Phelan opting to give high-performance players a chance to shine with the impressive Tomás Cubelli likely to be the starting scrumhalf and both Gabriel Ascárate and Matías Orlando picked ahead of Avramovic. The make up of the squad also suggests that Los Pampas XV captain, Julio Farías Cabello is now considered a secondrower rather than a backrower. He should start in the number 4 shirt. 

Suggested XV to face Italy:
15 Joaquín Tuculet
14 Belisario Agulla
13 Agustín Gozio
12 Felipe Contepomi
11 Manuel Montero
10 Ignacio Mieres
9 Tomás Cubelli
8 Leonardo Senatore
7 Tomás de la Vega
6 Tomás Leonardi
5 Santiago Guzmán
4 Julio Farías Cabello
3 Francisco Gómez Kodela
2 Andrés Bordoy
1 Rodrigo Roncero

Bench: 16 Bruno Postiglioni, 17 Francisco Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 18 Rodrigo Baez, 19 Genaro Fessia, 20 Martín Landajo, 21 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 22 Gabriel Ascárate

The clash vs Italy will take place in San Juan on Saturday June 09 and will  be followed by two matches against France on the two subsequent Saturday´s. The first taking place in Córdoba and the second in Tucumán. 

29 Man Pumas Squad

Belisario Agulla (Agen, France)
Gabriel Ascárate (Los Pampas XV)
Rodrigo Báez (Los Pampas XV)
Facundo Barrea (Los Pampas XV)
Andrés Bordoy (Pau, France)
Rodrigo Bruno (Los Pampas XV)
Felipe Contepomi (Stade Français, France)
Tomás Cubelli (Los Pampas XV)

Tomás de la Vega (Los Pampas XV)
Julio Farías Cabello (Los Pampas XV)
Genaro Fessia (Los Pampas XV)
Francisco Gómez Kodela (Biarritz, France)
Agustín Gozio (London Scottish, England)
Eusebio Guiñazú (Biarritz, France)

Santiago Guzmán (Los Pampas XV)

Pablo Henn (Brive, France)

Martín Landajo (Los Pampas XV)

Tomás Leonardi (Los Pampas XV)

Benjamin Macome (Los Pampas XV)

Ignacio Mieres (Exeter Chiefs, England)

Román Miralles (Los Pampas XV)

Manuel Montero (Los Pampas XV)

Matías Orlando (Los Pampas XV)

Bruno Postiglioni (Los Pampas XV)

Rodrigo Roncero (Stade Français, France)

Leonardo Senatore (Los Pampas XV)

Francisco Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro (Stade Français, France)

Joaquín Tuculet (Sale Sharks, England)
 Benjamin Urdapilleta  (Harlequins, England)

Chile 26-27 Uruguay

A titantic battle took place in Santiago del Chile on late Wednesday afternoon as Los Teros of Uruguay pulled off a one point win over Los Condores of Chile to move into second place of the 2012 South American Championship. Los Teros now face Brazil on Saturday while Los Condores take on Argentina meaning today´s result all but guarantees that Uruguay will finish in second place. The match was close throughout and was a dream encounter for the tournament organizers. At half time the score was 11-10 in favor of Uruguay after both sides had scored one first half try each. In the second half there was again one try per team and, as such, goalkicking proved to be decisive as Uruguay landed five penalties, one more than Chile who had converted both tries only to lose by a single point. 

The match was a reminder of the need for the IRB to make significant changes to the World Cup qualification system which makes it tough for South American sides to qualify for the global tournament. Three of the four teams from the CONSUR A category (South American Championship A) will be in contention to adavance to face the loser of Canada vs the United States of America. The fourth, Argenitna, has already qualified by virtue of being one of the three best teams from Pool B of Rigby World Cup 2011. The teams will battle it out in 2013 for a change to face the second best from North America in the following round of qualification for England 2015.

Chile

1 Alejandro Rios, 2 Manuel Gurruchaga, 3 Francisco Deformes, 4 Rolando Pellerano, 5 Pablo Huete, 6 Ignacio Silva, 7 Rodrigo Tobar, 8 German Suazo, 9 Juan Pablo Perrota, 10 Francisco Gonzales, 11 Francisco Metuaze, 12 Francisco de la Fuente, 13 German Herrera, 14 Felipe Brangier, 15 Javier Valderrama

Uruguay

1 Alejo Corral, 2 Nicolas Klappenbacg, 3 Oscar Durán, 4 Santiago Vilaseca, 5 Cristofer Soares, 6 Mathias Braun, 7 Diego Magno, 8 Juan Diego Ormaechea, 9 Francisco Vecino, 10 Mathias Arocena, 11 Rodrigo Martinez, 12 Juan de Freitas, 13 Agustin Ormaechea, 14 Gastón Mieres, 15 Jeronimo Etcheverry

Los Jaguares Squad for IRB Nations Cup

Juan Pablo Socino named in squad

Argentina´s A side, known as Los Jaguares, has been confirmed for the upcoming IRB Nations Cup to be played in Bucharest, Romania between June 8 and June 17. The tournament is a strategic part of the IRB´s development of global rugby and sees Los Jaguares and Italy A compete alongside four test teams - Portugal, Russia, Uruguay and hosts Romania. Of the four Romania is officially a Second Tier rugby nation while the three others are considered to be developing and all have the potential to be included in the Second Tier. All have played in Rugby World Cup´s and two of the four are expected to qualify for Rugby World Cup 2015. 

The 26 man squad consists of players considered to be fringe players for Los Pumas but players who will not feature for the senior side in the June internationals. The vast majority of players are Argentine based with twelve players having played in the this seasons Vodacom Cup. Three players were playing for European clubs with the most interesting selection being that of Juan Pablo Socino who was named in the RFU Championship´s Dream Team as inside centre. Socino has returned to Argentina after requesting to be released from his contract with Nottingham in England´s second division. He had offers to play for other teams, most interestingly, Treviso in Italy. A move to Treviso was a part of the FIR looking to make use of Socino in the Italian national side for the teams troublesome position of flyhalf. Socino´s selection means he will now not ever be elligible to play for Italy. 

Los Jaguares are grouped with Portugal, Romania and Russia with the teams first match being against the Portuguese on June 08. The team will be targetting winning the tournament after having lost two matches last season against Portugal and Georgia. The champions in 2011 were the South African Kings while Georgia finished second and Los Jaguares were third. The Los Jaguares team is coached by Los Pampas XV headcoach Daniel Hourcade and assisted by Emiliano Bergamaschi. Los Jaguares Squad

1-Lisandro Ahualli de Chazal (Universitario-Tucumán)

2-Felipe Aranguren (CUBA-URBA)

3-Nicolás Azorin (Liceo Naval-URBA)

4-Nicolás Basile (Aurillac, France)

5-Marcos Bollini (Club Newman-URBA)

6-Martín Chiappesoni (Atlético del Rosario-URBA)

7-Matías Cortese (Gloucester, England)

8-Jerónimo De la Fuente (Duendes RC-Rosario)

9-Ezequiel Faralle (Huirapuca-Tucumán)

10-César Fruttero (Jockey Club de Villa María-Cordobesa)

11-Martín García Veiga (Buenos Aires C y RC-URBA)

12-Juan Gómez (Los Matreros-URBA)

13-Lisandro Gómez López (La Tablada-Cordobesa)

14-Santiago González Iglesias (Associación Alumni-URBA)

15-Fernando Luna (Córdoba Athletic-Cordobesa)

16-Benjamín Madero (San Isidro Club-URBA)

17-Matías Masera (Belgrano Athletic-URBA)

18-Santiago Méndez (San Isidro Club-URBA)

19-Ramiro Moyano (Lince RC-Tucumán)

20-Javier Ortega Desio (San Isidro Club-URBA)

21-Ignacio Pasman (Club Champagnat-URBA)

22-Francisco Piccinini (San Isidro Club-URBA)

23-Lucas Ponce (CUBA-URBA)

24-Javier Rojas (Universitario-Tucumán)

25-Juan Pablo Socino (Nottingham, England)

26-Roberto Tejerizo (Tucumán Lawn Tennis-Tucumán)