World Rugby Nations Cup – Final Day Review

Uruguay are World Rugby Nations Cup Champions. Los Teros won the title at home on Sunday, defeating Spain 24-14. Combined with earlier wins over both Emerging Italy and Russia it meant Uruguay was the only undefeated team in the competition.

 

NAMIBIA 10 vs 31 RUSSIA
Sunday, Jun 18, 11:00, Montevideo

Prior to Uruguay taking-on Spain there were two other matches. The first of these was Namibia vs Russia. With both teams chasing spots at Rugby World Cup 2019 it was an extremely noteworthy fixture. Namibia went having lost against Spain while the Russians had fallen to Uruguay late in the second half of Wednesday.

Against the Namibians, Russia were in control throughout. Points in the 31-10 victory were first scored in the 12th minute. The Siberian flier Denis Simplikevich continued his impressive form to score again.

Three minutes later Russia were in again. Second-rower Bodgan Fedotko’s score was converted by fly half Yuri Kushnarev. With it Uruguay led 12-0.

Namibia opened their account though Chrisayder Botha. The fullback’s try was unconverted. Russia hit-back with immediate effect. Power from the Bears resulted in a penalty try. It gave Russia a 19-5 lead at half time.

In the second half there Europeans made quick work of adding to their score. Tries from Captain Vasily Arteyev and prop Vladimir Podrezov put the Bears in a dominant position.

Namibia managed to score a second try, doing so through Gino Wilson. No further points would be scored and with it Russia ran out convincing winners by 21 points.

Russia’s win today begs the question as to why Africa 1 receives direct qualification for Rugby World Cups? Indeed Uruguay defeated both Russia and Spain in the tournament but in qualifiers Los Teros face Canada or the USA. Namibia have no comparable opponents. Spain and Russia face each other in addition to others, notably Romania.

SCORING

NAMIBIA 10
Tries – C. Botha, G. Wilson

RUSSIA 31
Tries – D. Simplikevich, B. Fedotko, Penalty Try, V. Artemiev, V. Podrezov
Cons – Y. Kushnarev 2

TEAMS

NAMIBIA
1 Casper Viviers, 2 Louis van der Westhuizen, 3 AJ de Klerk, 4 Ruan Ludick, 5 Tjiuee Uanivi, 6 Wian Conradie, 7 Janco Venter, 8 Renaldo Bothma (capt.), 9 Damian Stevens, 10 Theuns Kotzé, 11 Gino Wilson, 12 Darryl de la Harpe, 13 Justin Newman, 14 Johann Tromp, 15 Chrysander Botha

Replacements: 16 Shaun du Preez, 17 Collen Smith, 18 Aranos Coetzee, 19 Mahepisa Tjeriko, 20 PJ van Lill, 21 Eugene Jantjies, 22 Cliven Loubser, 23 JC Greyling

RUSSIA
1 Valeri Morozov, 2 Stanislav Selskiy, 3 Vladimir Podrezov, 4 Dmitri Krotov, 5 Bogdan Fedotko, 6 Andrei Temnov, 7 Tagir Gadzhiev, 8 Anton Rudoi, 9 Alexei Shcherban, 10 Yuri Kushnarev, 11 Alexei Mikhaltsov, 12 Dmitri Gerasimov, 13 Vladimir Rudenko, 14 Denis Simplikevich, 15 Vasily Artemiev (capt.)

Replacements: 16 Sergei Chernyshev, 17 Andrei Polivalov, 18 Evgeni Mishechkin, 19 Vladimir Suslov, 20 Victor Gresev, 21 Konstantin Uzunov, 22 Alexander Budychenko, 23 Ramil Gaisin

ARGENTINA XV 15 vs 10 EMERGING ITALY
Sunday, June 18, 13:15, Montevideo

The Argentina XV made it a 2-1 campaign by downing Emerging Italy. The 15-10 victory was far from impressive. A disjointed display from the South Americans involving poor ball handling and ineffective service from scrum-half contributed to a low-scoring attack. The Italians were also unable to perform.

It took the yellow carding of Pierre Bruno to open the scoring The Argentina XV took advantage of the numerical superiority to score. Winger Franco Cuaranta crossed for the game’s opening try. It was converted by Jaguar Joaquín Díaz Bonilla.

The Italians hit-back to equalize. Scoring from a counter attack was Matteo Minozzi. The conversion was on target but the Argentina XV would quickly regain the lead through a Díaz Bonilla penalty.

With errors from both teams scoring remained rare. It was not until the second half until additional points came. When Santiago Medrano was yellow carded Emerging Italy looked to Leonardo Mantelli. His successful strike made it 10-10 in the 47th minute.

An additional opportunity from Mantelli came shortly thereafter. The flyhalf, though, was unable to land the opportunity.

The deadlock was eventually broken by Ignacio Larrague. The Jaguares second-rower barged his way over in the 76th minute to see the Argentina XV to a nervous victory.

SCORING

ARGENTINA XV 15
Tries – F. Cuaranta, I. Larrague
Cons – J. Díaz Bonilla
Pens – J. Díaz Bonilla

EMERGING ITALY 10
Tries – M. Minozzi
Cons – L. Mantelli
Pens – L. Mantelli

TEAMS

ARGENTINA XV
1 Franco Brarda, 2 Agustín Gómez Di Nardo, 3 Santiago Medrano, 4 Pedro Ortega, 5 Ignacio Larrague, 6 Francisco Gorrissen, 7 Lautaro Bavaro (capt.), 8 Rodrigo Bruni, 9 Felipe Ezcurra, 10 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, 11 Franco Cuaranta, 12 Bruno Devoto, 13 Juan Cappiello, 14 Julián Domínguez, 15 Fernando Luna

Replacements: 16 Roberto Tejerizo, 17 Francisco Ferronato, 18 Cristian Bartolini, 19 Santiago Portillo, 20 Santiago Montagner, 21 Lautaro Bázan, 22 Martín Elías, 23 Segundo Tuculet

EMERGING ITALY
1 Derrick Appiah, 2 Engjel Makelara, 3 George Iacob, 4 Riccardo Michieletto, 5 Leonard Krumov, 6 Matteo Corazzi, 7 Renato Giammarioli, 8 Mirko Amenta, 9 Simone Marinaro (capt.), 10 Leonardo Mantelli, 11 Matteo Manganiello, 12 Enrico Lucchin, 13 Matteo Gabbianelli, 14 Pierre Bruno, 15 Matteo Minozzi

Replacements: 16 Adriano Daniele, 17 Paolo Buonfiglio, 18 Roberto Tenga, 19 Niccolò Zago, 20 Luca Nostran, 21 Pietro Gregorio, 22 Filippo Buscema, 23 Marco Susio

URUGUAY 24 vs 14 SPAIN
Sunday, June 18, 15:30, Montevideo

Uruguay’s historic Nations Cup title came via a 24-14 win over Spain. Los Teros were the better side for the majority of the match. A solid halves combination from Santiago Arata and Felipe Berchesi worked well behind a dominant Teros scrum.

The scrum saw Berchesi lining up penalties in both halves of the match. Spain’s Brad Linklater was called upon to level out the scoring. Both kickers had solid afternoons. Halfway through the match it was Berchesi with three and Linklater one.

In the second half the play was more adventurous. Scoring the game’s first try was scrum-half Santiago Arata. His selection ahead of Agustín Ormaechea has seen eyebrows raised. This is based primarily on the latter playing his rugby for Mont de Marsan in France.

Arata’s performance, though, was excellent. His try was the best of the tournament and one of the best individual scores likely to be made all year. The 20-year-old from the Old Christians’ Club ran from well within his own half, broke tackles, chipped forward, regathered and went over to score.

The 41st minute try was converted by Berchesi. Linklater got Spain back to within a change. Two penalties from the fly half made it 16-9 to Uruguay with just over a quarter remaining.

Appearing to be heading toward victory Uruguay turned down a shot at goal to kick for the corner. Andrés Vilaseca misjudged his strike which saw Spain let off lightly. Minutes later Spain scored in the left corner. Second-rower Victor Sánchez finished off a counter-attacking play to make it 19-14 with ten minutes left to play.

In danger of being caught Uruguay struck the killer blow. Winger Leandro Leivas’ 77th minute try sealed the win. Levis went over to just touch down in the right corner. It was unconverted but it mattered not as Uruguay led by 10 points.

The Spanish had an opportunity to score late but Uruguay proved able to hold the Lions off. In kicking the ball into touch on full time the players celebrated their historic World Rugby title.

SCORING

URUGUAY 24
Tries – S. Arata, L. Leivas
Cons – F. Berchesi
Pens – F. Berchesi 3

SPAIN 14
Tries – V. Sánchez
Cons – B. Linklater 3

TEAMS

URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Martín Espiga, 3 Mario Sagario, 4 Ignacio Dotti, 5 Diego Ayala, 6 Juan Manuel Gaminara (capt.), 7 Gonzalo Soto, 8 Alejandro Nieto, 9 Santiago Arata, 10 Felipe Berchesi, 11 Gastón Gibernau, 12 Andrés Vilaseca, 13 Juan Manuel Cat, 14 Leandro Leivas, 15 Rodrigo Silva

Replacements: 16 Germán Kessler, 17 Matías Benítez, 18 Juan Echeverría, 19 Manuel Diana, 20 Diego Magno, 21 Agustín Ormaechea, 22 Francisco Berchesi, 23 Agustín Della Corte

SPAIN
1 Jean-Baptiste Custoja, 2 Juan Anaya, 3 Jon Zabala, 4 Carlos Gavidi, 5 Victor Sánchez, 6 Gautier Gibouin, 7 Fred Quercy, 8 Jaime Nava (capt.), 9 Grégory Maiquez, 10 Dan Snee, 11 Ignacio Contardi, 12 Álvar Gimeno, 13 Federico Casteglioni, 14 Jordi Jorba, 15 Brad Linklater

Replacements: 16 Fernando López, 17 Daniel Marrón, 18 Alberto Blanco, 19 Manuel Mora, 20 Lucas Guillaume, 21 Tomás Munilla, 22 Brice Labadie, 23 Afa Tauli