Pumitas Smash South Africa in Junior World Championship Bronze Final

Los Pumitas completed a comprehensive second half performance to defeat South Africa 49-19 in the Junior World Championship Bronze Final. Played in Manchester, England the Argentine under 20’s selection finished up a highly successful campaign which, prior to today, included wins over France, Japan and South Africa.

In defeating the Baby Boks by 49-19 Los Pumitas have achieved an historic third place finish.

Although Argentina went into the game with a prior win over South Africa the manner of today’s result was very much unexpected. South Africa started the stronger team with  Manie Libbok and Edwill van der Merwe both scoring. A conversion from fullback Curwin Bosch made it 12-0.

Los Pumitas did not waste time in responding. With a one man advantage Argentine captain Cuan Cruz Mallía crossed for a brace of tries. The accurate boot of Domingo Miotti saw both tries converted and a penalty added.

The first half, though, belonged to South Africa. A third try by hooker Jan-Henning Campher made sure that the Baby Boks went into the interval with a 19-17 lead.

After the restart it was all Argentina. A well taken score from replacement Mariano Romanini combined with goals from Miotti gave Los Pumitas a 30-19 advantage.

Then in the final quarter hooker Gaspar Baldunciel, number 8 Facundo Domínguez and Mallía each scored. Miotti added two further conversions to ensure the 2016 Pumitas side is oficially now the greatest of all time.

SCORERS
SOUTH AFRICA u20’s
Try: Libbok, van der Merwe, Campher
Conversion: Bosch (2)

ARGENTINA u20’s
Try: Mallía (3), Romanini, Baldunciel, Domínguez
Conversion: Miotti (5)
Penalty: Miotti (3)

SOUTH AFRICA u20’s
15 Curwin Bosch, 14 Stedman Gans, 13 Franco Naude, 12 JT Jackson, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Marco Jansen van Vuren, 8 Junior Pokomela (capt.), 7 Cobus Wiese, 6 Zain Davids, 5 Eli Snyman, 4 Ruben de Villiers, 3 Carlü Sadie, 2 Jan-Henning Campher, 1 Franco van den Berg

Replacements: 16 Tango Balekile, 17 Kwenzo Blose, 18 Nicolaas Oosthuizen, 19 Eduard Zandberg, 20 Denzel Hill, 21 James Hall, 22 Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 23 Keanu Vers

ARGENTINA u20’s
1 Juan Pablo Enríquez, 2 Gaspar Baldunciel, 3 Santiago Medrano, 4 Marcos Kremer, 5 Ignacio Calas, 6 Vícente Boronat, 7 Conrado Roura, 8 Facundo Domínguez, 9 Lautaro Bazán, 10 Domingo Miotti, 11 Julián Domínguez, 12 Teo Castiglioni, 13 Juan Cruz Mallía (capt.), 14 José Barros Sosa, 15 Martín Elías

Replacements: 16 Román Pretz, 17 Rubén Ricco, 18 Gonzalo del Pazo, 19 Nahuel Milán, 20 Mariano Romanini, 21 Patricio Baronio, 22 Tomás Malanos, 23 Bautista Delguy