February 9, 2017
Canada v Chile Preview: Americas Rugby Championship
Doug Coil
The second round of the Americas Rugby Championship will take place on Saturday February 11 with Argentina XV playing Uruguay at Estadio Villa Mitre, Bahía Blanca at 7.10pm (local time). The other matches have USA facing Brazil at Dell Diamond, Round Rock, (Austin) Texasat 6.10pm CT and Canada facing Chile at Westhills Stadium, Langford, BC. at 5.10pm PT.
In the first round, Argentina XV beat Canada 20-6, the USA won 29-23 over Uruguay and Brazil beat Chile 17-3. For a recap of the matches read Recap Round 1
The standings after round one find Argentina, the USA and Brazil with 4 points, Uruguay 1 point, and Canada and Chile with 0 points.
Canada v Chile
Canada head coach Mark Anscombe has made five changes to his starting XV for Saturday’s Americas Rugby Championship match against Chile and hope’s to gain Canada’s 100th test win.
Djustice Sears-Duru, Benoit Piffero, Ollie Nott, Gradyn Bowd and Guiseppe du Toit will enter the starting XV Gordon McRorie, who scored the only points in Canada’s 20-3 loss last week against Argentina, will captain the side again.
Du Toit and Nott, and Conor Keys will make their test debuts for Canada on Saturday. Cole Keith, Reegan O’Gorman, Matt Beukeboom, Robbie Povey and George Barton can also, if they come on as replacements.
Saturday’s game kicks off at 8pm ET/5pm PT and can be seen LIVE on TSN GO.
Chile
Chile will miss three Cóndores due to injuries sustained against Brazil. They are center Matías Nordenflycht, lock Nicanor Machuca and hooker Tomás Dussaillant. Matías Nordenflycht boot will be particularly missed, as he is a very accurate kicker. Americas Rugby News has reported that Nordenflycht and Machuca will miss three weeks, while Dussaillant broke his thumb and is out of the remainder of the Americas Rugby Championship.
Chile traveled with 28 players to Canada and will be looking to improve upon their 17-3 loss to Brazil in the rain. The weather conditions won’t improve in Canada, as their have been freezing conditions and snow has covered the pitch. Matías Nordenflycht, who is injured, scored the only points for Chile.