July Internationals 2025 – Chile vs Romania – ARN Guide

Twenty-first in the world take on twentieth as Chile play host to Romania in Santiago on Saturday. The match is the Stejarii’s first game of their three match South American tour. The tour is also the Romanian’s first opportunity of officially beginning preparations for Rugby World Cup 2027. The Stejarii qualified for Australia 2027 earlier this year. Chile will continue their qualifiers after taking-on Romania. The match is the official on-field preparation for Los Cóndores.

 

FORM GUIDE

Current World Ranking: 21 (61.72 points)
First appearance of 2025.

Current World Ranking: 20 (64.61 points)
2025-03-16 – Portugal 7-21 Romania (Algés, PT)
2025-03-02 – Georgia 43-5 Romania  (Tbilisi, GE)
2025-02-15 – Romania 6-34 Portugal (Botoșani, RO)
2025-02-08 – Belgium 14-31 Romania (Mons, BE)
2025-01-31 – Romania 48-10 Germany (Bucharest, RO)

STARTING LINEUP CHANGES (from  vs )

	IN	OUT
2	Tudor Butnariu	Ștefan Buruiana
4	Adrian Moțoc	Jacob Immelman
6	Cristi Boboc	Matthew Tweddle
7	Matthew Tweddle	Cristi Boboc
8	Nicolas Immelman	Adrian Mity
10	Tudor Boldor	Hinckley Vaovasa
12	Fonovai Tagimana	Taylor Gontineac
13	Antonio Mitrea	Mihai Graure
14	Toni Maftei	Iliesa Tiqe
15	Ovidiu Neagu	Marius Simionescu

 

CHILE + ROMANIA DEBUTANTS

– A Villanueva (LO), S Valenzuela (FL)

– A Mitrea (CE), T Maftei  (WI)

 

+  MOST CAPS

– S Videla (35), M Dittus (31), C Saavedra (31), J Carrasco (29), J Eissmann (29), R Fernández (29)

– A Savin (42), A Moțoc (34), F Tangimana (32), I Hartig (24), V Neculau (24)

 

+  LEAST CAPS

– N Saab (1), N Aguayo (2), L Berti (2), JC Reyes (4), B Sáez (4)

– V Bocanet (1), S Corrado-Ștețco (2), Y Horvat (3), M Tweddle (3)

 

+  NOTABLE ABSENTEES

– A Böhme (HK), V Lastra (LH), M Sigren (FL), M Torrealba (SH), B Videla (SH), D Saavedra (CE)

– M Iftimiciuc (LO), C Chirica (FL), A Mitu (N8), G Rupanu (SH), G Pop (FH), H Vaovasa (FH), T Gontineac (CE), J Tomane (CE)

 

NOTES

• Chile vs Romania is a very new fixture. The teams have only met on two previous occasions.
• Romania enters the contest undefeated against Los Cóndores.
• Neither team has a player with 50 or more caps.
• Lucas Berti makes his return to Los Cóndores following injury.
• Replacements Augusto Villanueva and Santiago Valenzuela are set to debut.
• Clemente Saavedra takes over the captaincy with Martín Sigren out with a serious knee injury.
• Saavedra also led Selknam in Super Rugby Americas.
• The non-Selknam players in the side to face Romania are Iñaki Ayarza (Vannes, FR), Lucas Berti (Montpellier, FR), Matías Dittus (Sarlat), Javier Eissmann (Agen, FR), Diego Escobar (Racing 92), Rodrigo Fernández (Colorno, IT) and Santiago Videla (Miami Sharks, US).
• Cristóbal Game moves to fullback with Iñaki Ayarza reverting to wing. Game is tall at 1.93m (6ft 4).
• The match is the Stejarii’s first since their involvement in Rugby World Cup 2027 Qualifiers.
• Iulian Hartig and Vlad Neculau also played for Romania against Chile in 2019.
• Alexandru Bucur and Alexandru Savin played against Chile in 2022 while Tudor Boldor was involved in both the 2019 and 2022 test matches.
• Center Antonio Mitrea and wing Toni Maftei will debut for Romania. Maftei is the son of Valentin Maftei who scored a try vs Ireland at Rugby World Cup 2003.
• Chile’s Lucas Berti is a third generation player. He moved to Ireland aged 15 and made rugby a priority.
• Berti is marginally a Chilean homegrown player while Juan Cruz Reyes are Chile’s is the one truly non-homegrown player. Reyes, who plays in Chile, is parent qualified.
• Seven of Romania’s starting XV are not homegrown players.
• Romania’s roster at Rugby World Cup 2011 was 100% homegrown. At Rugby World Cup 2015 it was 87% homegrown (27/31) and for Rugby World Cup 2023 the Romanian roster was 63.6% homegrown (21/33).
• The match will be officiated by Federico Vedovelli (Italy) in English. His assistants are Spanish speakers.

PREDICTION

Past results have gone Romania’s way, but this time Romania have arrived without a sizable number of players. This is in part due to having gotten the job done in qualifying for Australia 2027. It is also a reflection of Romania’s lack of depth, a fact reinforced by u20’s results and the boom in recruitment of non-homegrown players over the past decade and a half. Pleasant playing conditions await the players in Santiago. Chile are favorites to win in Santiago.

 

LINE-UPS

CHILE

#	PLAYER	FROM	CAPS
1	Javier Carrasco	Santiago	29
2	Diego Escobar	Santiago	12
3	Iñaki Gurruchaga	Concepción	20
4	Santiago Pedrero	Santiago	16
5	Javier Eissmann	Santiago	29
6	Raimundo Martínez	Santiago	21
7	Clemente Saavedra	Santiago	31
8	Alfonso Escobar	Santiago	27
9	Lucas Berti	Santiago	2
10	Rodrigo Fernández	Santiago	29
11	Iñaki Ayarza	Santiago	20
12	Santiago Videla	Santiago	35
13	Matías Garafulic	Santiago	18
14	Nicolás Garafulic	Santiago	26
15	Cristóbal Game	Concepción	7
16	Salvador Lues	Santiago	20
17	Norman Aguayo	Concepción	2
18	Matías Dittus	Santiago	31
19	Bruno Sáez	Santiago	4
20	Augusto Villanueva	Viña del Mar	–
21	Juan Cruz Reyes	Argentina	4
22	Nicolás Saab	Santiago	1
23	Santiago Valenzuela	Santiago	–

 

ROMANIA

#	PLAYER	HOMEGROWN	CLUB
1	Alexandru Savin	Romania	Rapid
2	Tudor Butnariu	Romania	Timișoara
3	Gheorghe Gajion	Moldova	Mont de Marsan (FR)
4	Adrian Moțoc	Romania	Biarritz (FR)
5	Andrei Mahu	Moldova	Massy (FR)
6	Cristi Boboc	Romania	Steaua
7	Matthew Tweddle	South Africa	Steaua
8	Nicolas Immelman	South Africa	Baia Mare
9	Alin Conache	Romania	Steaua
10	Tudor Boldor	Romania	Timișoara
11	Taliaʻuli Sikuea	Tonga	Baia Mare
12	Fonovai Tagimana	Tonga	Dinamo
13	Antonio Mitrea	Romania	Aurillac Espoirs (FR)
14	Toni Maftei	France	Elbi Cluj
15	Ovidiu Neagu	Romania	Timișoara
16	Ștefan Buruiana	France	Nevers (FR)
17	Iulian Hartig	Romania	Dinamo
18	Thomas Crețu	France	Albi (FR)
19	Yanis Horvat	France	Albi (FR)
20	Vlad Neculau	Romania	Timișoara
21	Vladut Bocanet	Romania	Baia Mare
22	Alexandru Bucur	Romania	Timișoara
23	Romeo Corrado-Ștețco	Romania	Timișoara

MATCH INFO

Date: Saturday, July 05
Kickoff: 3pm (CL); 10pm (RO)
Venue: Estadio Nacional, Santiago (CL)
Broadcasts: ESPN, Disney +
Weather Forecast: Partly Cloudy, 16°, Wind W 5 km/h

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Federico Vedovelli (Italy)
Assistant Referees: Francisco Gonzalez (UY); Gonzalo de Achaval (AR)
TMO: Marcelo Pilaro (AR)

 

HISTORY  vs (2019-2022)

11-05-2022 – Romania 30-23 Chile (Bucharest, RO)
06-08-2019 – Chile 11-27 Romania (Valparaíso, CL)

HEAD TO HEAD  vs (2019-2022)

Romania Wins: 2
Chile Wins: 0