South America competes for final World Cup place

The tournament – which will take place at Flamengo's Estádio da Gávea, in Rio de Janeiro – will be the ninth women’s continental championship, and the second time it has acted as a World Cup qualifier.

Every previous tournament has been won by Brazil.

For the fourth time in the tournament’s history, Brazil and Argentina have been drawn together in same pool. On all previous occasions these the teams have gone on to meet in the final, and that seems the most probable outcome on this occasion as well.

Columbia and Uruguay should also make the semi-finals from Pool B – and Columbia have a good recent record, having beaten Argentina twice in the last three years, going on to reach the final in 2010 and 2012.

However, Argentina have never lost a semi-final to anyone other than Brazil and - with the experience of taking part in the recent IRB Houston Sevens and Las Vegas Sevens – Argentina will start the tournament stronger than ever before.

However it is unlikely they are yet good enough to beat Brazil.

Although the Brazilians have yet to make a mark outside of the continent, their international experience has allowed them to continue to dominate rugby in South America more completely than any other country anywhere in the world – despite all the advances of their opponents.

Brazil have never been beaten by any other South American country in a full-strength international – indeed they have never conceded more than a single try in any game in this tournament since 2004. In 2012 – for the first time ever – three countries did managed to score a try against them, but Brazil at the same time scored some 25 tries.

They have never won a final by less than a margin of three tries, and finally they even have home advantage for this competition. If Brazil were not to win the title it would be almost certainly the greatest shock result in the history of women’s international rugby.

A Brazilian win would also put them into the third tier of World Cup qualifiers for the draw, which will take place a few days after the competition’s completion.

Fixtures (local time):

Saturday 23rdFebruary

10:20 Pool A Brazil vs. Peru10:40 Pool B Colombia vs. Paraguay11:00 Pool A Argentina vs. Chile11:20 Pool B Uruguay vs. Venezuela13:00 Pool A Brazil vs. Argentina13:20 Pool B Colombia vs. Venezuela13:40 Pool A Chile vs. Peru14:00 Pool B Uruguay vs. Paraguay15:40 Pool A Brazil vs. Chile16:00 Pool B Colombia vs. Uruguay16:20 Pool A Argentina vs. Peru16:40 Pool B Venezuela vs. Paraguay

Sunday 24th February

10:20 Bowl semi-finals

12:20 Cup semi-finas

13:20 7th/8th place play-off

14:40 Bowl final

15:22 Plate final

16:30 Cup final

Squads:

ARGENTINA: Gimena Acuña, NC Ohaco, Gladys Alcaraz, Guadalupe Delgado, Maria Botelli, Noelia Billerbeck, Venessa Garnelo, Sonia Garat, Xoana Sosa, Yamila Salas.URUGUAY: Adriana Altamiranda, Cecilia Verocai, Claudia Stocco, Flavia de Maria Florencia Acerbis, Lucia del Pino, Paula Errecalde, Valentina Almeda, Victoria Ríos.CHILE: Carla Morales, SC Chia, Cintya Morales, Daniela Fuentes, Ina Villegas, Katherine Aliaga, Mitzi Alvarado, Paula Riffo, Pilar Herrera, Vinka Liebsch.PARAGUAY: Andrea Vallejos, Antonella Nicolini, Fatima Trabucco, Giulieta Romero, Laura Lopez, Lucero Viveros, Maria Paredes, Nadia Bileski, Natalia Justiano, Paula Denis.COLOMBIA: Ángela Vázquez, Cindy Delgado, Claudia Betancur, Mauricio Henao, Orlando Jaramillo, Jennifer Garcia, Laura Garcia, Laura Goez, Lauro Gonzalez, Leidy D'Arboleda, Luiz Garcia, Yakeline Agudelo.VENEZUELA: Ana Fernandez, Claudia Contreras, Daniela Diaz, Daniela Gonzalez, Ilvimar Martinez, Ingrid Griffin, Jetsy Ferrara, Sandra Lugo, Trilivett Suarez, Valentina Velasquez.PERU ': Daniela Munoz, Diana Riesco, Melissa Vargas, Paola Garcia, Romina Gandolfo, Rosa Valdivieso, Rosemary Quesada, Samantha Chuquivala, Vanessa Estrada, Ximena Choy.BRAZIL: Angélica Pereira Gevaerd, Beatriz Future Mühlbauer, Edna Santini, Julia Albino Sardá, Juliana Esteves dos Santos, Luiza da Costa Campos Gonzalez, Mariana Barbosa Ramalho, Paula Harumi Ishibashi, Tais Bernal Balconies, Thaís da Cruz Rocha