Uruguay celebrate record win over USA

Uruguay ‘A’ stunned the USA Selects 47-15 in their final round match-up at the Americas Pacific Challenge in Montevideo on Sunday afternoon. The hosts enjoyed vast superiority in the set piece and showed some impressive attacking play in the loose. Short bursts of positive rugby were enjoyed by both teams in a game littered with penalties as five players were sent to the sin bin. The victory is a record score for a Uruguayan team over the USA and the second time the South Americans have defeated a USA side in 2016, winning their Americas Rugby Championship contest in March, also at the Estadio Charrúa.

The massive disparity of experience in the scrum was evident immediately. Uruguay opted to play virtually their entire first choice tight five against an American pack with only 10 test caps won between them. It was thus no surprise when the USA scrum went to pieces at nearly every engagement. The resulting penalties handed Jeronimo Etcheverry six shots at goal, from which he made four to go along with five-for-five accuracy on conversions.

Ben Cima gave something for USA fans to smile about with a well-struck penalty goal in the third minute after Mateo Sanguinetti was binned for a tip tackle. Unfortunately those smiles turned to frowns for almost the entirety of the half as Etcheverry made his presence felt and Santiago Hernández scored the game’s first try. Fellow flanker Joaquin Dell’Acqua made a searing break through the line and though Mike Te’o was there to make the emergency tackle, a glorious offload found Hernández to his left and clear to the line.

Jake Turnbull muscled over from close range just before the half at what looked to be the perfect time only for Uruguay to strike back immediately. An attacking scrum some 15 meters out from the line provided the perfect platform for Santiago Gibernau to run a hard line straight through the middle for a deflating seven-pointer.

A resolute Selects side appeared from the intermission and after Manuel Leindekar was dispatched for a 10 minute rest a try came for Malon Al-Jiboori. Phase play had the Americans almost within arms reach of the line on the far right. The ball was flung through six pairs of hands with Martin Iosefo’s incisive step just creating enough space for Harry Higgins to put away the 19-year-old flanker on the left touchline.

With an hour gone the penalties began to mount and Christian Ostberg was shown yellow for team infringements. The ensuing maul put Diego Magno over the line and when Demecus Beach was sent to sit beside Ostberg moments later it was case closed. Facundo Klappenbach and Rodrigo Silva added late tries to pad the scoreline.

With that the host team records its first win of the tournament and will consider their efforts perfect preparation for their European tour to Germany, Spain, and Romania in three weeks time. The USA will not enjoy the result but will take home plenty of lessons learned by their young charges, some of whom will step up to the senior Eagles side for the match against the New Zealand Maori in Chicago on November 4.

The two sides share a one-from-three record but USA concede fourth place to Uruguay on bonus points.

 

SCORING

USA SELECTS 15
Tries – J. Turnbull (37), M. Al-Jiboori (45)
Cons – B. Cima (37)
Pens – B Cima (3)
Yellow cards – A. MacLellan (26), C. Ostberg (63), D. Beach (67)

URUGUAY ‘A’ 47
Tries – S. Hernández (18), S. Gibernau (39), D. Magno (64), F. Klappenbach (74), R. Silva (78)
Cons – J. Etcheverry 5 (19, 40, 65, 75, 79)
Pens – J. Etcheverry 4 (6, 14, 27, 33)
Yellow cards – M. Sanguinetti (2), M. Leindekar (41)

 

TEAMS

USA SELECTS
1 Angus MacLellan 2 Joe Taufete’e (capt.) 3 Alex Maughan 4 Harry Higgins 5 Matt Jensen 6 Malon Al-Jiboori 7 Aladdin Schirmer 8 Cecil Garber 9 Nick Boyer 10 Ben Cima 11 Matai Leuta 12 Bryce Campbell 13 Martin Iosefo 14 Brett Thompson 15 Mike Te’o

16 Hanco Germishuys 17 Jake Turnbull 18 Demecus Beach 19 Christian Ostberg 20 Pat Blair 21 Stephen Tomasin 22 JP Eloff 23 Ahmad Harajly

URUGUAY ‘A’
1 Mateo Sanguinetti 2 Martín Espiga 3 Mario Sagario (capt.) 4 Diego Magno 5 Manuel Leindekar 6 Joaquín Dell’Acqua 7 Santiago Hernández 8 Manuel Diana 9 Santiago Arata 10 Jerónimo Etcheverry 11 Nicolás Freitas 12 Juan Manuel Cat 13 Santiago Gibernau 14 Rodrigo Silva 15 Manuel Blengio

16 Marcos Chamyán 17 Ignacio Secco 18 Juan Echeverría 19 Lorenzo Surraco 20 Fernando Bascou 21 Guillermo Lijtenstein 22 Joaquín Prada 23 Andrés Rocco

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Ricardo Sant’Anna (CBRu)
Assistants: Claudio Cattivelli (URU) & Martín Bangueses (URU)
TMO: Francisco Pesce (URU)