Argentina Topple Leicester Tigers at Welford Road

Veteran Leicester Tigers and Argentine loosehead prop Marcos Ayerza was given a fitting tribute today as the Aviva Premiership side hosted the South Americans for what was their final match before the World Cup. The visitors completed a 55-34 victory in what was a highly entertaining match and one in which Ayerza played for both teams.

The upcoming Aviva Premiership season is to be Marcos Ayerza’s Testimonial Year. El Toro has dedicated his professional career to the club which he has held down the #1 shirt for a decade. Both his teammates at club and international level in addition to his loyal club supporters were able to celebrate with him as a match featuring 13 tries took place in which the teams scored a staggering 80 points.

The South Americans deserved the win but were forced to dig deep as Leicester completed a comeback to narrow the scorelines after Argentina had been well in control. Leicester fought back from being 38-13 down to make it 38-34 before Los Pumas regathered themselves to score three late tries to win by a comfortable margin.

Debuting for Leicester was Puma Gonzalo Camacho who will miss the World Cup in preference of the fully-fit Horacio Agulla. Joining Camacho as newcomers for the Tigers were Peter Betham, Greg Bateman, Mike Fitzgerald, Lachlan McCaffrey, Joe Maksymiw, Will Owen and Owen Hills.

Such has been the importance of Leicester to Los Pumas past and present that playing against Leicester was not only Ayerza but three former Pumas – Lucas González Amorosino, Pablo Matera and Agulla.

Argentina started the match strongly by producing a counterattack which saw Santiago Cordero running clear to score near. Fly half Nicolás Sánchez added the sideline conversion before Tommy Bell cut the deficit shortly thereafter with a long-range penalty.

Argentina’s second try came in the 12th minute with slick hands enabling players to offload in the tackle and center Marcelo Bosch to run in under the posts. 14-3 became 21-3 at the end of the opening quarter with Juan Imhoff scoring from a well constructed move down the left touchline.

Leicester responded with Riccardo Brugnara scoring the first Tigers try with the prop diving over from a maul. Bell’s conversion was on target to make it a 21-10 game after 30 minutes. He could go from hero to villain in quick time as Sánchez intercepted his pass to make it 28-10. He, however, partly redeemed himself with a penalty to close out the half and make it 28-13 to the visitors.

Starting in place of the rested hooker Agustín Creevy, Julián Montoya underlined why Daniel Hourcade has selected him ahead of Santiago González Valdez as he started what was an excellent second half by scoring from close-range. A second try from a maul followed this time with replacement Horacio Agulla going over in the left corner.

Harry Thacker cut the 38-13 deficit by charging down a González Amorosino clearance kick and gathering the bounce to score. Former England international fly half Freddie Burns added the conversion. Shortly thereafter Burns was at it again as he intercepted a Jeronimo de la Fuente pass to score under the posts.

Magic from the Tigers continued as Paolo Odogwu produced speed to get past Agulla and score in the right corner. With Burns landing the touchline conversion it was a four point game with ten minutes remaining.

At this point Ayerza, who had started for Los Pumas, came on for Leicester. The home side, though, was unable to score again while Argentina crossed for three tries in the final minutes with replacements Juan Pablo Socino, Juan Manuel Leguizamon and Agulla all scoring and Socino adding the final conversion.

Scorers
Leicester
Tries: Brugnara, Thacker, Burns, Odogwu
Conversions: Bell, Burns (3),
Penalties: Bell (2)

Argentina
Tries: Cordero, Bosch, Imhoff, Sánchez, Montoya, Agulla (2), Socino, Leguizamón
Conversions: Sánchez (4), Socino

Leicester Tigers
1 Riccardo Brugnara, 2 Greg Bateman, 3 Tiziano Pasquali, 4 Joe Maksymiw, 5 Sebastian de Chaves, 6 Mike Fitzgerald, 7 Will Owen, 8 Laurence Pearce, 9 Sam Harrison, 10 Tommy Bell, 11 Gonzalo Camacho, 12 George Catchpole, 13 Christian Loamanu, 14 Peter Betham, 15 Mathew Tait (Captain)

Argentina
1 Marcos Ayerza, 2 Julián Montoya, 3 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 6 Juan Fernández Lobbe, 7 Javier Ortega Desio, 8 Facundo Isa, 9 Tomás Cubelli (Captain), 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 11 Juan Imhoff, 12 Juan Martín Hernández, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 14 Santiago Cordero, 15 Joaquín Tuculet

Venue: Welford Road
Referee: Tim Wigglesworth
Assistant Referees: Darren Gamage and Nigel Carrick