Chile v Scotland A, Summer Tour 2022: Match Preview

KO 9.00pm BST (4.00pm local time)
Saturday 25th June 2022
Estadio Santa Laura-Universidad SEK, Independencia Santiago

TV coverage – Premier Sports 1

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Teams

Scotland A: 15. Ollie Smith, 14. Damien Hoyland, 13. Matt Currie, 12. Sione Tuipulotu, 11. Rufus McLean, 10. Ross Thompson, 9. George Horne; 1 Jamie Bhatti, 2. David Cherry, 3. Javan Sebastian, 4. Jamie Hodgson, 5. Scott Cummings, 6. Ben Muncaster, 7. Luke Crosbie (capt), 8. Matt Fagerson.
Replacements: 16. Johnny Matthews, 17. Pierre Schoeman, 18. Murphy Walker, 19. Glen Young, 20. Magnus Bradbury, 21. Ali Price, 22. Blair Kinghorn, 23. Mark Bennett

Chile: TBC

For Scotland – Ollie Smith, Matt Currie, Ben Muncaster, Johnny Matthews, Murphy Walker and Glen Young are uncapped and will be looking to use this match to press their case for a place among the Test 23 – and a first cap – in the series against Argentina.

While it has been more than eight years since Scotland ‘A’ last played they did get as far as naming a side to take on England ‘A’ last year before Covid intervened. Seven players – Damien Hoyland, Rufus McLean, Ross Thompson, Javan Sebastian, Jamie Hodgson, Magnus Bradbury and Blair Kinghorn – were also in the matchday squad for that terminated fixture.

Chile Scouting Report

World Cup dreams

Chile have yet to qualify for a RWC but still retain hope of making it to France 2023. Following a stunning victory over two legs against Canada, Los Condores will face the USA in the Americas 2 playoff. The aggregate winner across two games on 9th and 16th July will take the final place in Group D at the World Cup. The loser will have one last opportunity to qualify for a slot in Group C via the Final Qualification Tournament in November this year.

Recent form

Post Covid, Chile have been making strides, including matching their highest ever world ranking of 23rd. They narrowly lost out to Uruguay in the 2021 South American Championship but then went on to that historic win over Canada. Having lost by a single point to a last minute penalty in the away leg, Chile blew their visitors away in Valparaiso with a comfortable cushion at half-time and only a try at the death put a bit of gloss on the result for an overmatched Canadian side.

Los Condores followed that up by defeating Russia – on their home turf – twice in the space of a week. The next target is to repeat the dose against another superpower, the USA, with this game against Scotland ‘A’ ideal prep to get the side in the right frame of mind to compete against a higher-ranked side.

Miscellany

• 25 of Chile’s 32-man squad named for their matches in June and July come from the Super Liga Americana de Rugby side Selknam. The Chilean club eliminated the Jaguares of Argentina in the SLAR semi-finals before losing out to Penarol of Uruguay in the final.
• Full back, Santiago Vidal, went 7 from 7 from the tee and scored 23 points in the second leg victory over Canada. The Selknam player also nailed 6 from 6 in his country’s first match against Russia including a penalty to win the game with time expired.
• Chile had a player sin binned in both legs of their RWC playoff against Canada and followed that up with 4 yellow cards in 2 games against Russia.

Previous results

This is the first time that these sides have met.

Officials

Referee: Adam Jones (Wales)
Assistant 1: Francisco Gonzalez (Uruguay)
Assistant 2: Talal Chaudhry (Canada)
TMO: Derek Summers (USA)

A United Rugby Championship ref that the Scots will be familiar with should help them find their feet in some unusual surroundings. It could be particularly important because Scotland have ‘lost’ the penalty count in each of their last 7 games – with an average of 12 conceded versus 9 offences by their opponents.

As ever it’s fine margins but differences like these are amplified in the cutthroat world of international rugby. This week’s match should be seen as an opportunity to show clear heads and good decisions ahead of a tricky Test series against Argentina.

The full Scotland Men’s team haven’t had a Welsh referee since Nigel Owens took charge of a Six Nations’ game v France in 2019. You’d need to go all the way back to 2013 and Leighton Hodges to find a WRU official other than Mr Owens taking charge of a Scotland game.

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