Promising Pumitas: A historic weekend for rugby in South America

A solid second-half performance gave Los Pumas a big, uncomfortable win against Uruguay, a couple of hours after Los Pumitas secured their best-ever position in the World Rugby U20 Championship, beating France 38-35 in
Calvisano, Italy.

Chile opened their RWC-qualifying series against Brazil with an important 35-21 in Sao Paulo.

In a friendly game, Paraguay travelled to Salta and earlier in the day, lost 41-31 against the local provincial team. They play at home against Uruguay next week.

The week started on Friday with Argentina XV inflicting another loss, 51-14, on a Romanian side that flew home that same night with three losses, scoring 38 points and conceding 162.

Well-known opponents

For a second consecutive year, Pumas and Teros played each other in a full international during a Test window.

As neighbours, joined by the wide River Plate and the Río Uruguay, they have been playing each other regularly since the first Sudamericano de Rugby (South American Championship) in 1951, over the past two to three decades, the growth of Argentine rugby meant that a second, third and even fourth XV was dispatched to play in that tournament.

With substantial help from Argentine Rugby, Uruguay has grown in the past decade, including playing in the last three Rugby World Cups. Playing these internationals is a step up in this close relationship, which should be imitated by other Tier One nations.

As a Tier Two nation against a Tier One side, Los Teros showed how competitive they could be.

In a hard-to-describe game, Los Pumas were clearly stronger; five tries went begging, four in the opening half. They still managed eight and a penalty try for a big win, smaller than the one a year earlier (79-5).

With centre Matías Moroni leading the way, an efficient Nicolás Roger in only his second Test, and the backrow of Pablo Matera, Benjamín Grondona and Joaquín Moro always on the ball, the first half did not go Los Pumas’ way, only leading 12-7 at the break.

Ironically, the game seemed to open when Argentina was down to fourteen men, when lock Pedro Rubiolo’s yellow card for a knock on an opponent’s head was upgraded. A stronger bench also enabled better quality ball for a much more direct approach.

A second-minute penalty try and a try by veteran Moroni, the best player on the field, was counterstriked by a five-pointer from lock Felipe Aliaga.

Captain Julián Montoya and replacement winger Santiago Cordero, who 24 hours earlier had announced this would be his last Puma game, scored.

Winger Ignacio Álvarez touched down for Uruguay straight after the yellow/red card, and soon after, the home side got four more tries – Justo Piccardo, Rodrigo Isgró, Agustín Moyano and Nicolás Roger (also kicked four goals). Of the quartet, only Isgro had previously scored a try for his country.

Coach Felipe Contepomi will now have a few days to break down the two losses against England and the win against Uruguay before selecting a Rugby Championship squad with the return of many star performers unavailable in July.

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On the road to Australia

Uruguay travels to Asunción next weekend, buoyed by their competitiveness for almost an hour against Argentina and their very good win against Romania a week earlier.

They should be too strong over the two-test series against the Paraguayans, enabling a final series against Chile, for the South American title and a direct flight to Aussie in 2027.

Chile will host Brazil for the return game next Saturday after an important win in Sao Paulo, which will have given the Brazilian Tupis some hope for what comes next.

The 35-21 win showed some good moments of rugby for the winners, with the Escobar brothers, hooker Diego (Racing 92) and Alfonso, scoring four minutes apart in the first half, both on the back of rolling mauls, for a 25-7 halftime score.

The Brazilian forwards took the game to the Chileans and found their way to a try, before the Cóndores showed some of their weapons, getting a penalty try after a good run by scrumhalf Lucas Berti and a penalty from efficient kicker Santiago Videla.

Replacement loose forward Gabriel Oliveira gave the home side some hope for the rematch, with an 82 nd minute try, meaning Brazil needs to win by 15 or more points to win the series.

Argentina XV win big

The weekend started on Friday afternoon, with a big 52-14 win by Argentina XV against Romania.

With 22 of the 23 players coming from Super Rugby Americas – all but Benneton prop Thomas Gallo demoted from the Pumas a week after starting against England – the winners controlled a Romanian team that returned home with three big losses in South America after Chile beat them 40-16 and Uruguay 70-8.

Wing Lautaro Cipriani scored a brace, and recent Pumas 7s player Tobías Wade scored in his first XVs game in a long time, two of the scorers of the eight Argentina XV tries.

The team will next play against Munster on November 1st and the Bristol Bears six days later.

Pumitas close with a hard-fought win

Three wins and two losses in Italy saw Los Pumitas finish third in the World Rugby U20 Championship, beating last year’s finalists France 38-35.

This was the second time an Argentine team won the bronze medal – Juan Cruz Mallía, Marcos Kremer, Franco Molina and Bautista Delguy, the best-known players from the 2016 team.

Time will tell how many of these players make it to Los Pumas. One ready for promotion to The Rugby Championship squad is prop Tomás Rapetti, who has signed for Toulouse. Gael Galván (La Rochelle), Álvaro García Iandolino and
Alejandro Barrios (Bayonne) have already confirmed their moves to French rugby.

France touched down twice in the opening half – the second, after the hooter, with typical French sweet hands, going to the break leading 14-5.

Straight from the restart, France scored twice – one was cancelled for an earlier forward pass. Los Pumitas took the lead on the hour mark with three tries. Kicker Pascal Senillosa scored the try of the Bronze Play-off, taking a sweet chip from teammate Ramón Fernández Miranda for Argentina’s last try.

With Los Pumitas leading by ten points, France scored a converted try that closed the scores in the 82 nd minute.