SLAR Preview – Cafeteros Pro vs Cobras

Cafeteros Pro face Os Cobras Brasil XV on Monday. The fixture is the battle to avoid the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) wooden spoon. The Colombians go in to the match winless while Os Cobras’ one win was against Los Cafeteros Pro. Both teams had strong performances in their most recent match.

Results are of secondary interest to Los Cafeteros Pro. The intent is to blood and develop players for Colombia’s test team, Los Tucanes. This policy has seen game tiem opportunities for players across all positions. The line-up that will take to the field against Os Cobras is another that fits this approach.

Seven of the starting forwards are Colombians. Second-rower Lautaro Simes is the one Argentine forward that will start for Los Cafeteros Pro. The backs are different with the two wingers being Colombian while the five other starting backs are Argentines. The García brothers start at scrum-half and inside center. Gonzalo García again leads the team.

Os Cobras’ starting lineup features twelve Brazilian test players. They are joined by three Argentines. Alejandro Luna will play tight head; Manuel Bernstein will play second-row and Franco Giudice starts at fullback. In short, aside from the Argentine trio the team is a potential side to play for Brazil against Colombia in the RWC 2023 qualifiers in June. Felipe Sancery leads Os Cobras from outside center. He is also the test captain.

The match features a number of feature match-ups. On one side of the front-row the battle will be Brazil vs Colombia with Caique Silva starting opposite Brayan Pérez. In the second-row Gabriel Paganini’s head-to-head with Danny Giraldo is certain to be a feature as will be Cléber Días vs Diver Ceballos at flanker.

Os Cobras enter as favorites. The Brazilians have more competition points, albeit they have fewer bonus points. This is a match which could go either way. ARN projects a Cobras win by a margin of 6 points.

Kickoff is set for 3:00pm local time, Asunción, Buenos Aires and Brasília; 2:00pm Santiago; and 1pm Bogotá. Live broadcasts will be provided by ESPN in the competing countries.

CAFETEROS PRO
1 Yani Pérez, 2 Jorge Álvarez, 3 Brayan Pérez, 4 Lautaro Simes, 5 Danny Giraldo, 6 Diver Ceballos, 7 Enzo Ocampo, 8 Gerson Ortíz, 9 Gonzalo García, 10 Nicolás Roger, 11 Alejandro Navarro, 12 Tomás García, 13 Santiago Resino, 14 Jhon Arley Urrutia, 15 Facundo Ferrario

Replacements: 16 Agustín Acosta, 17 Javier Corvalán, 18 Diego Posada, 19 Jhon Álvarez, 20 Felipe Puertas, 21 Jhojan Ortíz, 22, Julián Navarro, 23 tba

COBRAS
1 Caique Silva, 2 Yan Rosetti, 3 Alejandro Luna, 4 Manuel Bernstein, 5 Gabriel Paganini, 6 Cléber Días, 7 Adrio de Melo, 8 André Arruda, 9 Felipe Cunha, 10 Joshua Reeves, 11 Daniel Lima, 12 Gabriel Quirino, 13 Felipe Sancery (capt.), 14 Daniel Sancery, 15 Franco Giudice

Replacements 16 Leonardo Souza da Silva, 17 Leonel Moreno, 18 Matheus Rocha, 19 Matheus Cláudio, 20 Arthur Bergo, 21 Laurent Bourda Couhet, 22 Moisés Duque, 23 Lucas Spago

Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo
Kickoff: 3:00pm (Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Brasília), 2:00pm (Santiago), 1:00pm (Bogotá)
Referee: Nehuén Jauri Rivero (Argentina)
Broadcast: ESPN 3 (America Latina), ESPN (Brazil)

Historical Results:
2021-03-30 Cobras 30, Cafeteros Pro 14, (Estadio Nacional, Santiago)