Argentina throttle Uruguay in Montevideo

The home fans had little to cheer about as Uruguay ‘A’ were pulverized by the Argentina XV to the tune of 71 points on Wednesday. A try to Andrés Rocco early in the second half saved Uruguay the added embarrassment of a shutout, but it was otherwise one-way traffic with seven tries – each from a different player – and 43 points already on the board by halftime.

A 20-minute stretch in the second half was the best part of the game for Uruguay. Rocco’s try lifted their spirits and they managed to halt the scoring spree until Bautista Delguy got his second with 15 minutes left to play. Three scores in the final five minutes, two by Fernando Luna, added 21 points to the margin with the conversion by Juan Cruz González on full-time nudging the scoreboard over 70.

Argentina now only need beat Fiji on Sunday to claim the title. Uruguay will play the USA in search of their first win of the competition.

 

SCORING

ARGENTINA XV 71
Tries – S. Montagner (10), C. Bartoloni (13), B. Delguy 2 (21, 65), G. Bertranou (25), F. Bosch (32), J. Guillemaín (36), J. Domínguez (39), F. Luna 2 (75, 80), J. Cappiello (78)
Cons – D. Miotti 4 (11, 22, 26, 40), J. González 4 (66, 76, 79, 80)

URUGUAY ‘A’ 7
Tries – A. Rocco (45)
Cons – J. Etcheverry (46)

 

TEAMS

ARGENTINA XV
1 Facundo Gigena 2 Facundo Bosch 3 Cristian Bartoloni 4 Juan Cruz Guillemaín 5 Pedro Ortega 6 Nicolás Menendez 7 Tomás Lezana 8 Santiago Montagner 9 Gonzalo Bertranou (capt.) 10 Domingo Miotti 11 Julián Domínguez 12 Gabriel Ascárate 13 Juan Cappiello 14 Fernando Luna 15 Bautista Delguy

16 Gaspar Baldunciel 17 Nicolás Solveyra 18 Santiago Medrano 19 Ignacio Larrague 20 Rodrigo Báez 21 Felipe Ezcurra 22 Juan Cruz González 23 Santiago Álvarez

URUGUAY ‘A’
1 Mateo Sanguinetti 2 Martín Espiga 3 Mario Sagario (capt.) 4 Manuel Leindekar 5 Diego Ayala 6 Joaquín Dell’Acqua 7 Fernando Bascou 8 Santiago Hernández 9 Guillermo Lijtenstein 10 Jerónimo Etcheverry 11 Andrés Rocco 12 Facundo Klappenbach 13 Joaquín Prada 14 Santiago Gibernau 15 Manuel Blengio

16 Juan Echeverría 17 Ignacio Secco 18 Diego Arbelo 19 Lorenzo Surraco 20 Diego Magno 21 Santiago Arata 22 Rodrigo Silva 23 Nicolás Freitas

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Tim Baker (HKRFU)
Assistants: Joaquín Montes (URU) & Claudio Cattivelli (URU)
TMO: Francisco Pesce (URU)