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An impressive Argentina defeated Wales in the U20’s Championship this morning in Narbonne, France. Despite Wales having 67% possession it was Argentina who were the superior side, winning 39-15.
With Argentina having been badly exposed in San Juan by Wales on Saturday this match was of note. The performance of Los Pumitas today was notably better in both attack and defense with the structure of play being cornerstones of the victory.
Los Pumitas dominated the scrums counterattacked superbly and the forwards gained quality go-forward ball. Defensively the line held firm with Wales’ repeated carrying held back by a team giving away few penalties.
It was a vastly improved effort to that from against Italy last week. While everything went badly for Los Pumitas in the opening half against the Azzurri today the side delivered.
Argentina’s U20’s opened the scoring. They did so via flay half Joaquín de la Vega Mendía who landed a penalty. Ironically his goal-kicking would struggle for the remainder of the match.
The Welsh would hit-back smartly, scoring the game’s opening try. The converted try saw left winger Ryan Conbeer magically step through the defense to score a first phase try.
Los Pumitas responded through scrum-half Manuel Nogues. His try came from inside Argentina’s own half. Mateo Carreras attacked from fullback, breaking down the left. A clever left-footed kick through saw three Pumitas chases fighting it out to get to the ball with Nogues securing the try.
Wales looked to bounce back straight away and had an opportunity. With Agustín Segura slowing down play just a meter out he was yellow carded, seeing Argentina down to 14-men for 10 minutes. Wales were able to turn it into a try with Corey Baldwin going over.
Argentina’s scrum would get one back with a beautiful la bajadita seeing Los Pumitas awarded a penalty try.
In the second half Argentina took full control of the scoring. Wales enjoyed superior possession but it was the South Americans who would rake up the points.
Santiago Carreras finished off a team try. Using rugby and soccer skills, Los Pumitas edged further ahead of Wales. Juan Ignacio Molina scored next, his try also being the result of a team working well together.
For Wales not a lot was going well in the second half. Remarkably two penalty attempts from de la Vega Mendía rebounded off the posts only for Wales to knock-on both times.
The resulting scrum from the second knock-on saw winger Pablo Avellaneda touching down. The Pumitas winger scored in the right corner with three Welsh tacklers unable to stop him.
The win sees Argentina into the U20’s Championship 5th Place Final. They will face the winner of Italy vs Australia with Wales taking-on the loser in the battle for 7th position.
SCORING
ARGENTINA U20’S
Try: Nogues, Penalty Try, S Carreras, Molina, Avellaneda
Conversion: De La Vega Mendía (3)
Penalty: De La Vega Mendía (2)
Yellow Card: Segura
WALES
Try: Conbeer, Baldwin
Conversion: Evans
Penalty: Evans
ARGENTINA U20’S
15 Santiago Carreras, 14 Pablo Avellaneda, 13 Juan Pablo Castro, 12 Agustín Segura, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Joaquín de la Vega Mendía, 9 Manuel Nogues, 8 Santiago Ruiz, 7 Juan Ignacio Molina, 6 Joaquín de la Vega (capt.), 5 Lucas Paulos, 4 Ignacio Gandini, 3 Lucio Sordoni, 2 Leonel Oviedo, 1 Rodrigo Martínez
Replacements: 16 Agustín Milet, 17 Gonzalo Hughes, 18 Agustín Mansilla, 19 Salvador Ochoa, 20 Santiago Grondona, 21 Gonzalo García, 22 Juan Bautista Daireaux, 23 Santiago Chocobares
WALES U20’S
15 Dewi Cross, 14 Corey Baldwin, 13 Ioan Nicholas, 12 Tiaan Thomas-Wheeler, 11 Ryan Conbeer, 10 Cai Evans, 9 Dane Blacker, 8 Ben Fry, 7 Dan Davies, 6 Tommy Reffell (Capt.), 5 Max Williams, 4 Rhys Davies, 3 Chris Coleman, 2 Iestyn Harris, 1 Rhys Carre
Replacements: 16 Rhys Davies, 17 Dewi Lake, 18 Will Davies-King, 19 Lewis Ellis-Jones, 20 Taine Basham, 21 Harri Morgan, 22 Ben Thomas, 23 Max Llewellyn
