Ireland end Los Pumitas Junior World Championship Dream

Ireland ended Los Pumitas Junior World Championship dream earlier today as the Western Europeans produced an outstanding performance to eliminate the South Americans at the Semi Finals stage.

The win sees Ireland reach the World Rugby Junior World Championship Final for the first time in history. For Los Pumitas the loss against Ireland sends them into the Bronze Final where they will face South Africa for the second time in the tournament.

Despite having gone into the fixture against Ireland as favorites today was not a good day for Los Pumitas. Ireland simply was vastly better organized and took it to a nervous Argentina under 20 side whose lack of discipline was exploited by the Irish.

Ireland’s impressive first half performance featured three tries including a double from fullback Jacob Stockade. Los Pumitas scored one with captain Juan Cruz Mallía going over but it came after Ireland already had three points on the board.

The South Americans needed to quickly decrease the 21-7 half time deficit but the task had an impact on discipline, allowing fly half Johnny McPhillips to kick three penalties. Down but not out Argentina’s difficult task was made impossible when Santiago Pulella was red carded for head-butting an opponent.

The 14-man Pumitas were beaten and with time up outside center Shane Daly crossed for the only try in the second half. Replacement Brett Connon converted to finish the scoring at 37-7.

ARGENTINA 7
Tries – J.Mallía
Cons – D. Miotti
Red cards – S. Pulella

IRELAND 37
Tries – J. Stockdale 2, M. Deegan, S. Daly
Cons – J. McPhillips 3, B. Connon
Pens – J. McPhillips 3
Yellow cards – V. O’Brien

ARGENTINA u20
1 Rubén Ricco, 2 Gaspar Baldunciel, 3 Santiago Medrano, 4 Franco Molina, 5 Ignacio Calas, 6 Marcos Kremer, 7 Mariano Romanini, 8 Vicente Boronat, 9 Patricio Baronio, 10 Domingo Miotti, 11 Julián Domínguez, 12 Santiago Mare, 13 Juan Cruz Mallía (capt.), 14 Tomás Malanos, 15 Bautista Delguy

16 Román Pretz, 17 Santiago Pulella, 18 Gonzalo Del Pazo, 19 Conrado Roura, 20 Bautista Stávile, 21 Lautaro Bazán, 22 Martín Elías, 23 Nicolás Osadczuk

IRELAND u20
1 Andrew Porter, 2 Adam McBurney, 3 Ben Betts, 4 Sean O’Connor, 5 James Ryan (capt.), 6 Greg Jones, 7 David Aspil, 8 Max Deegan, 9 Stephen Kerins, 10 Johnny McPhillips, 11 Hugo Keenan, 12 Conor O’Brien, 13 Shane Daly, 14 Matthew Byrne, 15 Jacob Stockdale

Replacements: 16 Vincent O’Brien, 17 James Bollard, 18 Adam Coyle, 19 Evan Mintern, 20 Kelvin Brown, 21 Niall Saunders, 22 Brett Connon, 23 Jimmy O’Brien