Uruguay outclass Chile in Montevideo

Uruguay ended their 2017 Americas Rugby Championship on a high as they defeated Chile by 45-14 at the Estadio Charrúa in Montevideo on Saturday. Riding a wave of confidence following the defeat of Canada in Maldonado, Los Teros ran in six tries to one as they stormed home to finish third overall.

After a slow start to the match the first points went to Francisco González Moller. The Chilean flyhalf missed a kick from halfway but slotted one from closer in just a couple minutes later. That seemed to spark Uruguay to life, however, and after González Moller was sent to the bin for an intentional knock-on, Germán Albanell erased the kick with one of his own. Soon after Juan Echeverría was driven over from a maul for the first try and Los Teros were on their way.

Tomás Ianiszewski took over the kicking duties with González Moller still off the field and kept Chile in touch with a well-struck penalty goal, but Uruguay were in a try-scoring mood. Leandro Leivas was the next on the scoreboard, after a nice looping play from the Teros backline and a picture-perfect pass from Albanell hit the big winger in stride.

The two combined again just moments later. This time Albanell threaded the ball along the ground with his boot for Leivas to dive on in the endzone for his second try. González Moller sent over a penalty goal just before the break to make it 24-9 to Uruguay after 40 minutes.

With energy levels dropping at the back end of a long five weeks, there was little to show for Chile in the second half. Nicolás Freitas ripped through the line and stepped past four would-be tacklers to score a fine individual effort. Ianiszewski was shown yellow for a cynical foul, and within a minute Diego Magno spun over from close range in his Uruguayan record 68th test cap.

Freitas made it a double soon after, with a lovely spin pass out of the tackle from Rodolfo Garese putting the winger in space. A late consolation try for Nikola Bursic followed a yellow card to Juan de Freitas for what was deemed a dangerous tackle. As the game broke up a bizarre moment in the 80th minute saw Mario Sagario sent off for throwing two unprovoked jabs at the face of Mario Mayol.

Indiscipline aside Uruguay will be pleased with their efforts and will finish the tournament in 3rd place overall, one spot up from 2016. Chile meanwhile head back to the drawing board with no wins from five and no bonus points to finish at the bottom for a second consecutive year.

 

SCORING

URUGUAY 45
Tries – J. Echeverría (27’), L. Leivas 2 (32’, 36’), N. Freitas 2 (53’, 67’), D. Magno (63’)
Cons – G. Albanell 4 (28’, 33’, 37’, 54’), R. Silva 2 (64’, 68’)
Pens – G. Albanell (22’)
Yellow cards – J. de Freitas (76’)
Red cards – M. Sagario (80’)

CHILE 14
Tries – N. Bursic (79’)
Pens – F. González Moller 2 (20’, 39’), T. Ianiszewski (31’)
Yellow cards – F. González Moller (21’), T. Ianiszewski (62’)

 

TEAMS

URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti (16 Facundo Gattas 64’), 2 Martín Espiga (17 Matías Benítez 69’), 3 Juan Echeverría (18 Mario Sagario 52’), 4 Ignacio Dotti (19 Diego Ayala 64’), 5 Diego Magno, 6 Juan Manuel Gaminara (capt.), 7 Rodolfo Garese, 8 Alejandro Nieto (20 Gonzalo Soto 57’), 9 Guillermo Lijtenstein, 10 Germán Albanell (22 Gastón Mieres 57’), 11 Nicolás Freitas, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (23 Juan de Freitas 64’), 13 Juan Manuel Cat, 14 Leandro Leivas, 15 Rodrigo Silva (21 Lucas Durán 69’)

CHILE
1 Claudio Zamorano (17 Vittorio Lastra 47’), 2 Manuel Gurruchaga (capt.), 3 José Tomás Munita (18 Lucas Bordigoni 64’), 4 Mario Mayol, 5 Nikola Bursic, 6 Cristóbal Niedmann (20 Arturo Seeman 52’), 7 Anton Petrowitsch, 8 Benjamín Soto (19 Manuel Dagnino 59’), 9 Juan Pablo Larenas (21 Sergio Bascuñan 55’), 10 Francisco González Moller, 11 Tomás Ianiszewski, 12 Ricardo Sifri (22 Jorge Castillo 64’), 13 José Ignacio Larenas, 14 Mauricio Urrutia, 15 Rodrigo Fernández (23 Martín Fernández 61’)

Not used: 16 Rodrigo Moya

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Kurt Weaver (USAR)
Assistants: Claudio Cattivelli (URU) & Martín Bangueses (URU)