Wales overwhelm committed Uruguay

Wales eased through Uruguay by a score of 54-9 in front of a sold out Millenium Stadium in Cardiff on Sunday. Though there was never any doubt who was the better side, the scoreline flattered Wales somewhat, as they looked far from clinical and made numerous errors with ball in hand.

First blood went to Uruguay, as Felipe Berchesi converted a penalty shot with the two minute mark still to tick over on the clock. After an overly ambitious attempt from beyond halfway fell short, Berchesi found his target with a much simpler kick after some positive attacking play from Los Teros.

Wales went back to basics and finally got onto the scoreboard from a driving maul in the 15th minute, with returning prop Samson Lee the one to come up with the ball. A second try came almost immediately, as a perfectly weighted chip kick from Rhys Priestland landed in the hands of Cory Allen, with the big centre sliding over for the touchdown.

Berchesi pulled his team back to within one score with his third penalty, but Wales showed their class with two more tries before the break, both from Allen. A short ball from Scott Williams put Allen through the gap for the first, and some slick handling out wide put the Cardiff Blues man over for his hat trick on the stroke of halftime.

The second stanza was all Wales on the score sheet, but Los Teros never faded, frustrating the home side with committed defense and hard work at the breakdown. Hallam Amos raced away to score a try in the 49th minute, followed by Gareth Davies, Justin Tipuric, and Davies again to bring up the final whistle. Priestland landed seven from eight conversions.

Wales have some injury worries with Liam Williams picking up what looked like a dead leg, man-of-the-match Allen limping off in the 55th minute, and Dan Lydiate picking up a head knock with five minutes to play. They will hope to have all fit and ready to play in the pivotal match against England on Saturday. Uruguay will take heart from their performance despite the lop-sided scoreline, but it doesn’t get any easier as they now take on the Wallabies in a week’s time.

WALES 54
Tries – S. Lee (15), C. Allen 3 (19, 29, 40), H. Amos (49), G. Davies 2 (59, 80), J. Tipuric (71)
Cons – R. Priestland 7 (16, 19, 30, 40, 50, 72, 80)

URUGUAY 9
Pens – F. Berchesi 3 (2, 9, 23)

WALES
1 P. James (A. Jarvis 32) 2 S. Baldwin (K. Owens 62) 3 S. Lee (T. Francis HT) 4 J. Ball 5 L. Charteris (D. Day 47) 6 S. Warburton (capt.) (D. Lydiate 59 {J. King 75}) 7 J. Tipuric 8 J. King (R. Moriarty 47) 9 G. Davies 10 R. Priestland 11 H. Amos 12 S. Williams 13 C. Allen (Ll. Williams 55) 14 A. Cuthbert 15 Li. Williams (M. Morgan 35)

URUGUAY
1 A. Corral (M. Sanguinetti 77) 2 C. Arboleya (G. Kessler 77) 3 M. Sagario (O. Duran 72) 4 S. Vilaseca (capt.) (A. Alonso 75) 5 J. Zerbino (F. Lamanna 61) 6 J. Gaminara 7 M. Beer (J. de Freitas 59) 8 A. Nieto 9 A. Ormaechea (A. Duran 75) 10 F. Berchesi 11 R. Silva 12 A. Vilaseca (F. Bulanti 75) 13 J. Prada 14 S. Gibernau 15 G. Mieres