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The final match of the first half of Super Rugby Americas 2023 will take place on Saturday. Infinity Park in Denver, Colorado will see the American Raptors looking for their first win of their inaugural campaign. Os Cobras have traveled to the Centennial State in search of their second win of the season.
Os Cobras are poorly prepared for the match. The Brazilian side were scheduled to fly out from São Paulo on Wednesday. Weather saw the flight cancelled while a mechanical failure saw their United Airlines flight on Thursday moved to 8pm Friday. They flew via connections which totaled a 20 hour trip to arrive on the eve of their match. A request to delay the match to Monday or Tuesday was denied by Super Rugby Americas.
Players were still arriving in Denver less than 24 hours before kick-off. Following the arrival Josh Reeves quickly confirmed his line-up for the match. Of note in the forwards is the New Zealand – Argentina second-row combination of Ben Donald, and Lucio Anconetani.
The backs see a start for Sérgio Luna on the right wing. He will join the in-form Ariel Rodrigues and captain Luca Tranquez in the back-three. Argentines Facundo Villalba and Nicolás Cantarutti start. Cantarutti and Tranquez are both play-makers to offer support to fly half Lucas Spago.
Meanwhile, the homeside were very late in their team announcement. It came with noteworthy changes. Captain Mikey Grande has been dropped to the replacements. The leadership has been handed on to Argentine hooker Diego Fortuny. He will start alongside props Payton Telea-Ilalio and Juan Echeverría in the front-row.
Echeverría is one of two Uruguayans with World Cup experience starting in the forwards. The other is non other than the most capped Americas player of all-time, Diego Magno. Meanwhile, Canadian Saki Vikilani starts at the back of the scrum and the in-form Ronan Murphy will play flanker.
As has been the case throughout the Super Rugby Americas 2023 season the halves are the Buenos Aires pair of Martín Landajo and Lucas González Amorosino. The backs feature two strong finishers outwide in Ryan Smith and Seimou Smith while Aki Pulu and Watson Filikitonga provide solid carriers in the mid-field. Line Latu provides a second play-maker from fullback.
The match is big from a geographical and population point of view. It will be the first professional rugby match between teams from the USA and Brazil. The countries are two of the world’s five largest by area and they rank third and seventh respectively for population in the world.
TEAMS
AMERICAN RAPTORS
1 Payton Telea-Ilalio, 2 Diego Fortuny (capt.), 3 Juan Echeverría, 4 Will Crawford, 5 Diego Magno, 6 Ronan Murphy, 7 Tommy Clark, 8 Siaki Vikilani, 9 Martín Landajo, 10 Lucas González Amorosino, 11 Seimou Smith, 12 Aki Pulu, 13 Watson Filikitonga, 14 Ryan Smith, 15 Line Latu
Replacements: 16 Chris Schade, 17 Ma’aki Muti, 18 Adagio Lopeti, 19 Mikey Grandy, 20 Tavius Sykora-Matthess, 21 Ethan McVeigh, 22 Cassh Maluia, 23 Ramiro Moyano
COBRAS
1 Levy Marinho, 2 Endy Willian Pinheiro, 3 Henrique Ferreira, 4 Ben Donald, 5 Lucio Anconetani, 6 Cleber Dias, 7 Matheus Cláudio, 8 André Arruda, 9 Facundo Villalba, 10 Lucas Spago, 11 Ariel Rodrigues, 12 Robert Tenório, 13 Nicolas Cantarutti, 14 Sérgio Luna, 15 Lucas Tranquez (capt.)
Replacements: 16 Diego Vidal, 17 Alexandre Alves, 18 Bautista Vidal, 19 Gabriel Paganini, 20 Donnacha Byrne, 21 Douglas Rauth, 22 Guilherme Coghetto, 23 Alain Altahona
Date: Sunday, April 02
Kick-Off: 5pm (MST); 8pm (Brasília)
Venue: Infinity Park, Glendale, Colorado (US)
Referee: Damián Schneider (AR)
Assistant Referees: Michael Lawrenson (US); Juan Manuel León (CO)
TMO: Amanda Cox (US)
HISTORICAL RESULTS
N/A
