South American wrap: Uruguay make history in a sour weekend for Argentina

The Uruguayan Teros shocked the oval world in their first game of the season beating a soulless Romanian side by a staggering 70-8, their biggest win against a fellow Tier 2 team.

England waited 79 minutes to defeat Los Pumas 22-17, their 14^th win in the last fifteen tests between both sides. The weekend stretched into Monday and Los Pumitas struggled in the opening few minutes against South Africa and lost 48-24 in the second semifinal of the World Rugby U20 Championship in Italy.

A lot can be said of Romania’s downfall in this South American tour, which will be completed on Friday with the game against Argentina XV. Truth is that Uruguay, also with a number of players unavailable with injury, were too strong in every department at the Charrúa Stadium last Saturday.

Joe Schmidt interview after Wallaby squad announcement

Joe Schmidt interview after Wallaby squad announcement

Eleven tries scored by the home side speak of the capacity of a Tero team under coach Rodolfo Ambrosio,  that welcomed the return after a long lay-off with injury of Andrés Vilaseca, the team’s captain in France 2023.

Experienced flanker Santiago Civetta scored a brace within the opening ten minutes and the Oaks replied with their only try in the eleventh minute. It was one-way traffic after that, with fullback Juan González and winger Bautista Basso, scoring a brace each.

Super Rugby Americas champion Peñarol Rugby formed the core of the Uruguayan team that will now tackle a full Pumas team in Salta next Saturday, in a much harder test.

The following weekend, they travel to Asunción to play against Paraguay in the start of their Rugby World Cup qualifying campaign, that includes a home game against the same opposition. 

The winner of the series will play against the winner of the home-and-away series between Brazil and Chile, starting this weekend. 

Then, the winner of that series will become South American champion and qualify directly to Australia 2027; the loser will play against the team that fails to qualify from the Pacific Nations Cup for another place in the RWC with the third team in the South American Championship to play in the Final Repechage Tournament.

The region had pledged for a fairer qualifying route for its teams. This win against Romania and the previous win of Chile, plus the losses of Portugal (against Ireland), Canada (against Belgium) and USA (v Spain) in the weekend seem to prove that the development in South America is working well, better than in other nations with easier routes to Australia.

England’s pragmatism enough to beat Argentina

The opening test of the series against England in La Plata had the Pumas’ fans hopeful after a much-celebrated win against the British & Irish Lions, which followed wins against South Africa, New Zealand and Australia in 2024.

A shadow of those wins, Felipe Contepomi’s side were unable to, again, contain an English side that knew fully well what they needed to do, flying to the USA for their season’s last game on the back of a much-celebrated series win in Argentina.

George Ford has never lost against Los Pumas and was instrumental in most of those wins. Again, in San Juan, he was crucial, controlling the game with a maturity that Los Pumas lacked. In front of him was Santiago Carreras, one of the most gifted Pumas but that struggles playing at number 10.

Despite England’s superiority in the contact area, the game seemed to be heading to a 17-17 draw until the 79^th minute when the youngest Argentine on the field, Benjamín Elizalde, lost a ball which led to an attack culminating in Jack van Poortvliet’s winning try.

This loss did not end the honeymoon with Contepomi after a very good opening season last year, but questions marks certainly appeared. Uruguay, despite their good win against Romania, should bring a solid win. Nothing less is expected.

With the return of many stars rested for this window, the Rugby Championship should show a better performance from the surprise team in 2024.

Los Pumitas to play for bronze in Italy

It will be hard to gage how good the Argentine U20s performance in the Junior World Championship 2025 in Italy was. They made it to the top four so that is very positive.

In doing so, they struggled to beat Wales and Spain in the first two games – won 34-27 and 33-30 respectively – and reached the final game of the pool phase only needing one bonus point to reach the semis for only the third time since the first U20 Championship in 2002.

Four French tries in the first thirteen minutes decided the winner; the fourth and crucial Pumitas score came seven minutes from the end when the winners were ahead 52-19.

On Monday, South Africa secured their ticket to the final against New Zealand scoring four of their six tries before the first Argentine five-pointer.
Nicolás Fernández Miranda’s team, according to official stats, had more territory (63%) and possession (55%), yet a stronger, faster and more efficient Junior Springboks were never in doubt of a win.

They will have to regroup in time to play again against France.