The URBA Top 12 is launched, but there will be casualties because many players will be loaned for the Super Rugby Americas

With the same tournament model that was implemented last season, this Saturday from 3:30 p.m. A new season of the Top 12 organized by the Buenos Aires Rugby Union (URBA) begins and in which SIC He will defend the title obtained in 2023.

With some absences in the teams that loaned players for the dispute of the Super Rugby Americasthe Top 12 will deliver attractive matches from the first date.

It will also be the beginning of the Third and Development tournaments organized by the Buenos Aires union and which complete the First A, B, C and Second, which have already completed two dates.

Among the matches with the greatest expectations, the one that will be played in Villa de Mayo stands out between CUBA y Newmanwhile SIC will receive Atlético del Rosario. The recently promoted Champagnat y Tank Tops They will have their reunion in the category before Alumni y Belgrano, respectively. The date is completed with ALMOST-Buenos Aires y San Luis-Hindu.

Nine of the 12 teams provided 21 players to some of the franchises competing in the Super Rugby Americas and they will be absent from their clubs until, in principle, date seven. But if the franchise overcomes the regular phase of the tournament, SIC, CUBA, Alumni, Belgrano, Atlético del Rosario, Regatas, Hindú, Buenos Aires and Newman will only recover their men for the tenth match of the fixture.

San Isidro Club loaned four players to Pampas and one to Yacaré XV, a Paraguayan franchise. CUBA contributed three for the Buenos Aires representative team, while Alumni did the same with another two and one for Selknam, from Chile. Hindú, Belgrano and Regatas each have two players in the South American competition, as does Atlético del Rosario, which contributed its own for the Paraguayan team.

As in 2023, the competition will be divided into two round-trip rounds for the regular phase, with qualification for the semifinals that will pit the first against the fourth and the second against the third, to define the two teams that will define the championship. .

The four qualifiers will play on a court that will be defined by the URBA in due course. At the end of the season there will be two direct relegations for the teams that are in the last two positions. These teams will be replaced by two others from First A: the champion and the best of a playoff between second and fifth in the table.

The last time they played Alumni – ChampagnatTortuguitas’ team scored 74 to 0. The Marists They have not won against that rival for more than 23 years: the last time was 27 to 16 in 2001.

The Rojiblancos face the year as runners-up. They lost the last final against SIC in a match fought until the last moment. They had hit the ball by eliminating Newman, which had been the best team in the regular season.

Champagnat returns to the top division after 13 years of absence. He achieved promotion after finishing third in the final table with 86 points. In the semifinals they beat Los Tilos and in the final they beat Matreros. They will play their twelfth season in the top competition in Buenos Aires.

With 27 titles in tow, the champion will have the challenge of playing without five of its starters, in the middle of the Super Rugby Americas competition. With the challenge of rotation, the defense of the title will begin at home. For its part, Atlético had a different year: it managed to retain the category shortly before the end of the season and for this it also has several of its references

Despite the disparate nature of their campaigns, in 2023 each one played the game that faced them as a visitor. The San Isidro team did it in Plaza Jewell by 38 to 12, and the Rosario team did it in Boulogne by 32 to 27.

It is, a priori, the match that promises the most because both have a string of games in the defining moments of the last tournaments. Newman won the last three games and Cuba achieved its last victory in 2022.

The Cardinal will face a round without using its Benavídez court, suspended. The negative aspect for Universitario is the loss of players in the Major League, which is added to those in Super Rugby.

For the San Isidro club, the goal is to reach the semifinal of the tournament after several inconsequential seasons. After being the revelation in 2022, Buenos Aires had to work hard to revalidate its participation in the Top 12.

El León changed its head coach, but the same structure continues. He also managed to recover some of the injured members of the squad, although he will present a decimated pack. When they met last year, they won the away games.

Regatas is the last champion of Primera A, with 120 points they achieved the goal five dates before the end of the competition. On its return to the elite, it will complete its twenty-first season, with the 2002 campaign, in which it won runner-up, as the best in its history.

For Belgrano it is time for a change: it has a superior squad made up mostly of young people and will try to reach the semifinals, an event that has been postponed since 2019. After a good start last season, the team did not qualify for the playoffs.

With the aim of achieving a consistency that it did not have in 2023, a season in which it fought for permanence until the end with its classic rival, La Plata, San Luis will seek to be a more balanced team in a new season in the Top 12.

Hindú’s immediate past is more prosperous, although last year it remained in the semifinals, eliminated by SIC. The squad does not present substantial changes and therefore the Elephant will seek to be one of the entertainers of the competition.