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The July 2022 Internationals continue. Portugal play host to the Argentina XV in what is the second of two matches in Europe for the South Americans. The match follows the Argentina XV’s away victory over Georgia last weekend.
The match is not a friendly. Players are under instructions to perform to be in consideration for Los Pumas in the Rugby Championship, November Internationals and for test honors in 2023. Portugal, meanwhile, are preparing for what is a strong opportunity to qualify for the Rugby World Cup for the second time. Os Lobos can qualify via repechage. They await confirmation of who they will face from Africa, the Americas, and Asia / Pacific.
Portugal are a team with a growing professional presence. The 39-man players includes fifteen players based in France and one in the UK. In addition, backs Jerónimo Portela and Raffaele Storti played SLAR 2020 for Peñarol. Portela and Start will start against the Argentina XV at fly half and on the wing respectively.
Vincent Pinto is notably absent for Os Lobos. Tomás Appleton captain’s a side featuring Rodrigo Marta at outside center and Raffaele Storti and Manuel Cardoso Pinto on the wings. Up front Pro D2 veteran Anthony Alves returns for Portugal at tight head.
The Argentina XV have made three changes to face Portugal. They see Tomás Albornoz, Mateo Carreras, and Santiago Ruiz starting. Albornoz replaces Gerónimo Prisciantelli at fly half, Mateo Carreras replaces Sebastián Cancelliere on the right wing and Santiago Ruiz replaces Joaquín Oviedo at N8.
Ignacio Fernández Lobbe has rotated his formation with the replaced trio all named on the bench. In the case of Cancelliere it comes with a positional change; he has been named as the replacement scrum-half.
The Argentina XV replacements note the range of options. Ignacio Calles, Joaquín Oviedo, Sebastián Cancelliere, and Facundo Cordero play for Pau, Perpignan, Glasgow Warriors and Exeter Chiefs.
There have been no prior matches between Portugal and the Argentina. There have, however, been four matches between Portugal and the Argentina Jaguares. The team was rebranded to be the Argentina XV to enable Jaguares to be the name of the Super Rugby franchise.
All four Portugal vs Argentina Jaguares matches took place in Europe. The first was in Portugal in 2006 with the Argentine side winning 24-19 in Lisbon. A similar result occurred two years later. Portugal won the third match which took place in 2011 while the fourth was the only one-sided match. On that occasion the Argentina Jaguares won 41-09 in Bucharest, Romania.
TEAMS
PORTUGAL
1 Francisco Fernandes, 2 Mike Tadjer, 3 Anthony Alves, 4 Duarte Torgal, 5 José Madeira, 6 João Granate, 7 Thibault de Freitas, 8 Rafael Simões, 9 Samuel Marques, 10 Jerónimo Portela, 11 Manuel Cardoso Pinto, 12 Tomás Appleton (capt.), 13 Rodrigo Marta, 14 Raffaele Storti, 15 Nuno Sousa Guedes
Replacements: 16 David Costa, 17 Nuno Mascarenhas, 18 Diogo Hasse Ferreira, 19 Martim Belo, 20 Vasco Baptista, 21 Duarte Azevedo, 22 José Lima, 23 Simão Bento
ARGENTINA XV
1 Facundo Gigena, 2 Santiago Socino, 3 Santiago Medrano, 4 Franco Molina, 5 Nahuel Milán, 6 Tomás Lezana, 7 Francisco Gorrissen (capt.), 8 Santiago Ruiz, 9 Eliseo Morales, 10 Tomás Albornoz, 11 Julián Domínguez, 12 Lucas Mensa, 13 Agustín Segura, 14 Mateo Carreras, 15 Martín Bogado
Replacements: 16 Bautista Bernasconi, 17 Ignacio Calles, 18 Javier Coronel, 19 Joaquín Oviedo, 20 Nicolás D’Amorim, 21 Sebastián Cancelliere, 22 Gerónimo Priscinatelli, 23 Facundo Cordero
Date: Saturday, July 9
Kick-Off: 19:00 local (11:00 Pacific, 14:00 Eastern, 15:00 Buenos Aires)
Venue: Estádio do Restelo, Lisbon
Referee: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)
Assistants: Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy) & Luc Ramos (France)
TMO: Matteo Lipperini (Italy)
HISTORICAL RESULTS
June 08, 2012 – Portugal 9-41 Argentina Jaguares (Bucharest, RO)
June 10, 2011 – Portugal 25-21 Argentina Jaguares (Bucharest, RO)
November 21, 2009 – Portugal 13-24 Argentina Jaguares (Lisbon, PT)
June 24, 2006 – Portugal 19-24 Argentina Jaguares 24 (Lisbon, PT)
