All-Americans edged by Spain

A penalty kick in the 74th minute from Andrea Rabago sealed a two-point victory for Spain over the All-Americans at the World Rugby u20 Trophy tournament in Zimbabwe on Wednesday morning. The result from the winner-take-all meeting in the final round of the pool stages knocks the American side from potential finalists to third spot in Pool B and into a match against Uruguay on Sunday to decide 5th place.

Defense was the key to victory for Los Leones, who were down a man in only the 10th minute when center Iñaki Mateu was sent to the bin for a dangerous tackle. The Americans could not capitalize, however, and instead it was Spain who scored first through scrumhalf Jaime Mata, who found open space on the post to dart in for a try.

Another blow was struck early in the second half as hooker Vicente Del Hoyo finished off a long series of phase play, with Rabago adding his second conversion to make it a healthy 16-0 lead.

It wasn’t until the hour mark when skipper Hanco Germishuys finally injected some hope into his side, brushing aside tackles to score his sixth try of the tournament. Ben Cima converted to bring the All-Americans to within one score, but a follow-up would not come before Rabago struck the killer blow.

Germishuys added his second on full-time and will almost certainly finish as top try scorer at the tournament with seven now on his ledger. It will be little consolation to the captain as his All-Americans are now out of Trophy contention.

SPAIN 18
Tries – J. Mata (29), V. Del Hoyo (43)
Cons – A. Rabago 2 (30, 44)
Pens – A. Rabago (74)
Yellow cards – I. Mateu (10)

USA 16
Tries – H. Germishuys 2 (59, 79)
Cons – B. Cima 2 (60, 80)

SPAIN
1 Pere Fernández (Jaume Genabat 33) 2 Vicente Del Hoyo (Tommy Vaysset 20-25, 52) 3 Jon Zabala (capt.) 4 Baptiste Beaugeard (Guillermo Vicente 26-35) (Tobias Francis HT) 5 Gonzalo Del Rio (Guillermo Vicente 65) 6 Ignacio Guerra 7 Luis Canti 8 Cosmin Matei (Yannick Pardo 70) 9 Jaime Mata 10 Alvar Gimeno 11 Hugo Pichot (José Lerín 60) 12 Andrea Rabago 13 Iñaki Mateu 14 Sam Parry 15 Jordi Jorba

Not used: Eduard Calatayud

USA
1 Chance Wenglewski 2 Steven Branham (Ruairi Van Raalte 73) 3 Mason Pedersen (Roman Salanoa 73) 4 Victor Comptat (Bronson Teles 48) 5 Deven Marshall (Chad Sneyd 70) 6 Malon Al-Jiboori 7 Brennan Falcon 8 Hanco Germishuys (capt.) 9 Louis Mulholland (Ruben de Haas 60) 10 Ben Cima 11 Rodney Giles (Duncan van Schalkwyk 65) 12 Brian Hannon 13 Devin Lim 14 Tyler Sousley 15 Mitch Wilson

Not used: Veuki Tamoefolau