World Cup Qualifier – Chile vs USA – ARN Guide

The most significant match of the year thus far takes place on Saturday in Santiago, Chile. Los Cóndores have home advantage against the USA in the first of two matches. The teams will meet again in game two in Denver, Colorado. The winner of the matches, on aggregate will qualify for Rugby World Cup 2023 as Americas 2.

Chile will be looking to take-on and overpower the Eagles up-front. Pablo Lemoine’s line-up named is one of a big, powerful pack of forwards. A commanding front-row of Javier Carrasco, Augusto Bohme, and Matías Dittus will look to get go-forward ball, and win penalties in scrums.

Lemoine’s second-row sees Santiago Pedrero, and Javier Eissmann starting together while regular second-rower, Clemente Saaedra moves to flanker. The strategy will give Chile added power in their efforts to get the upper hand in a physical contest. This sees flankers Ignacio Silva and Thomas Orchard both on the bench.

Martín Sigren will lead the side from flanker. He will not be joined not only by Silva but also by Alfonso Escobar who misses out following injury sustained against Scotland A. Chile thus start with a powerful back-row trio of Sigren, Saavedra and Raimundo Martínez.

Lukas Carvallo starts ahead of former MLR player, Marcelo Torrealba at scrum-half. He joins Rodrigo Silva in the halves. Injuries sees José Larenas starting at inside center while Matías Garafulic moves from wing to outside center. Santiago Videla Strats at fullback to be the goal-kicker and to give Chile a second play-maker.

The USA are coming off a good result in Houston; the Eagles defeated the French Barbarians in a warm-up match to prepare for Chile. Preparations have not been without problems as first choice players Titi Lamositele and Paul Lasike are out of the match.

Gary Gold has three different starting players for Chile from that which took to the field in Houston. Joe Taufete’e,  Ben Bonasso, and Martin Iosefo start at hooker, flanker and on the left wing. Elsewhere, Hanco Germishuys moves from one flanker to the other and Tavita Tamileau has been named as a replacement. The uncapped Jason Damm is also on the replacements.

The Eagles team combines players from Major League Rugby and Europe. Toulouse’s David Ainu’u starts at loose head, and English Premiership players Greg Peterson, Ruben de Haas and AJ MacGinty start at lock, and scrum-half and fly half.

A positional move sees Joe Taufete’e back from tight head prop to hooker. This ought to elevate the strength of the scrum; a tactical move to face the highly rated Chilean scrum.

Prior results heavily favor the Eagles. The difference between the teams during the Americas Rugby Championship (ARC) years was significant. Chile played as amateurs then. Today, the players are products of the national High Performance Center. The rapid progress saw Chile eliminating Canada in RWC qualifiers in 2021. Never before had Canada’s Men’s team missed out on a World Cup. Chile are a team on the rise and one to be taken very seriously.

The match is one of contrasting styles. Whoever can control the pace of the game will be the team able to contribute more to how the rugby is played. Chile will be looking to play a methodical, slower speed while the Eagles, under MacGinty’s play-making will be looking to play faster.

Both teams will be ready for this game. They have an eye on a place at the World Cup in France. Despite there being a final shot via repechage, this Americas 2 series is being treated as a true finals series. It is all or nothing at the foot of the Andes on Saturday.

TEAMS

CHILE
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Augusto Bohme, 3 Matías Dittus, 4 Santiago Pedrero, 5 Javier Eissmann, 6 Martín Sigren (capt.), 7 Clemente Saavedra, 8 Raimundo Martínez, 9 Lukas Carvallo, 10 Rodrigo Fernández, 11 Franco Velarde, 12 José Ignacio Larenas, 13 Matías Garafulic, 14 Nicolás Garafulic, 15 Santiago Videla

Replacements: 16 Diego Escobar, 17 Salvador Lues, 18 Vittorio Lastra, 19 Augusto Sarmiento, 20 Thomas Orchard,  21 Ignacio Silva, 22 Luca Strabucchi, 23 Marcelo Torrealba

USA
1 David Ainu’u, 2 Joe Taufete’e, 3 Paul Mullen, 4 Greg Peterson, 5 Nick Civetta, 6 Benjamín Bonasso, 7 Hanco Germishuys, 8 Cam Dolan, 9 Ruben de Haas, 10 AJ MacGinty (Capt.), 11 Martin Iosefo, 12 Bryce Campbell, 13 Tavite Lopeti, 14 Christian Dyer, 15 Marcel Brache

Replacements: 16 Kapeli Pifeleti, 17 Chance Wenglewski, 18 Angus MacLellan, 19 Siaosi Mahoni, 20 Jason Damm, 21 Tevita Tameilau, 22 Nate Augspurger, 23 Luke Carty

Date: Saturday, July 09
Kick-Off: 18:00 local (15:00 Pacific, 18:00 Eastern)
Venue: Estadio Santa Laura Universidad SEK, Santiago (CL)
Referee: Nic Berry (Australia)
Assistant Referees: Hollie Davidson (UK); Talal Chaudhry (Canada)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)

HISTORICAL RESULTS
February 02, 2019 – Chile 08-71 USA (Santiago, CL)
Feburary 17, 2018 – USA 45-13 Chile (Los Angeles, California, US)
February 25, 2017 – Chile 09-57 USA (Santiago, CL)
February 20, 2016 – USA 64-0 Chile (Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US)