Selknam gave their home supporters a fantastic afternoon. Their home match at Estadio St George’s College was a bonus point victory with Selknam winning 37-13. It was a vastly different rugby match to that between the same teams in Tucumán in the Super Rugby Americas (SRA) 2026 season opener.
Selknam’s win provides the Chilean side with a boost as they eye a pathway to the SRA Semi Finals. Indeed, Selknam claimed the full 5 competition points on offer and denied Los Tarucas any competition points. It was 5th place at home against 3rd.
The win demonstrated determination as well as skills. It also came after a nightmare start. Los Tarucas scored minutes after the kick-off through Facundo Cardozo. The flanker scored following a maul in what turned out to be the only Tarucas’ incursion into the opposition try zone of the afternoon.
Ignacio Cerrutti converted the try but 7-0 did not last very long; indeed, Augusto Böhme powered over for the first Selknam try. Center Matías Garafulic added the conversion to level the scores at 7-7 before the match had reached the 10 minute mark.
Matías Garafulic was the next to score. His try was from a magnificent counter attack start by fly half, Rodrigo Fernández. He ran from deep and put up an up-and-under. Cristóbal Game chased and leaped high to gather. A long and well timed pass to the left followed with Garafulic over in the right corner.
Garafulic went from hero to zero quickly, however, as he was yellow carded for an intentional knock-on. Los Tarucas failed to capitalize as it was Selknam’s match.
The third try was created by Rodrigo Fernández. He put in a kick through for scrum-half, Lucas Berti to chase and gather. Berti converted his own try to put Selknam in a solid position. It was the final score of the opening half with Selknam leading 19-7 at the interval.
The second-half saw Matías Garafulic and Ignacio Cerrutti exchanging penalties twice. With it, the difference between the teams remained tilted in favor of the Chileans.
Selknam then powered to victory in the final quarter. The impressive young center / wing, Nicolás Saab scored on 65 minutes while Nicolás Garafulic proved to be a useful injection from the replacements. He scored a try one minute before the final whistle.
With the win, Selknam move up to 22 competition points. Los Tarucas remain on 23 points while Los Capibaras, who face Peñarol on Monday in Montevideo, have 21 competition points.
 SCORING |
SELKNAM (37)
TRY – A Böhme (6′); M Garafulic (14′); L Berti (33′); N Saab (65′); N Garafulic (79′)
CON – M Garafulic 2 (7′, 80′); L Berti (34′)
PEN – M Garafulic (45′, 53′)
YC – M Garafulic (27′)
TARUCAS (13)
TRY – F Cardozo (3′)
CON – I Cerrutti (4′)
PEN – I Cerrutti (50′, 67′)
YC – R Guraib (34′)
| LINE-UPS |
SELKNAM
1 Emilio Shea, 2 Augusto Bohme, 3 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 4 Santiago Pedrero, 5 Agustín Toth, 6 Clemente Saavedra (capt.), 7 Alfonso Escobar, 8 Santiago Montagner, 9 Lucas Berti, 10 Rodrigo Fernández, 11 Nicolás Saab, 12 Matías Garafulic, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Manuel Bustamante, 15 Cristóbal Game
Replacements: 16 Benjamín Moreno, 17 Norman Aguayo, 18 Alan Pedrol, 19 Clemente Armstrong, 20 Martín Sigren, 21 Marcelo Torrealba, 22 Nicolás Garafulic, 23 Ernesto Tchimino
TARUCAS
1 Francisco Palazzi Barrientos, 2 Juan Manuel Vivas , 3 Francisco Moreno, 4 Luciano Asevedo, 5 Ignacio Marquieguez, 6 Facundo Cardozo, 7 Agustín Sarelli, 8 Thiago Sbrocco, 9 Estanislao Pregot, 10 Ignacio Cerrutti, 11 Tomás Vanni, 12 Bautista Estofan, 13 Matías Orlando (capt.), 14 Mateo Pasquini, 15 Tomas Elizalde
Replacements: 16 Raul Enrique Guraiib, 17 Ignacio Lazarte, 18 Rodrigo Navarro, 19 Joaquín Aguilar, 20 Santiago Melitón Heredia, 21 Matías Sauze, 22 Stefano Ferro, 23 Nicolás María Macome
| MATCH HIGHLIGHTS |
Video: To Follow
| MATCH OFFICIALS |
VS
Referee: Damián Schneider (Argentina)
Assistant Referees: Federico Longobardi (Argentina); Sebastián Toledo (Chile)