Panama Come back to Topple Honduras

Panama mounted a second half come back to topple Honduras today in Tegucigalpa. The 39-27 victory came after Honduras had been leading 20-12 at half time.

Today’s fixture marked the beginning of the historic 2018 Centroamericano. Honduras, and Panama are joined by El Salvador in the new look Centroamericano, the updated version of the former South American C Championship.

The three competing countries are all Central American Republics, a fact which makes the rebranding of the competition entirely sensible and justified.

Changes from the 2017 competition see El Salvador returning while Costa Rica, and Guatemala have been promoted to the Sudamericano 4 Naciones B 2018. They join Peru, and Venezuela in the new-look competition. Guatemala will host this year’s edition of the competition.

Both Costa Rica, and Guatemala earned the right to play in the Sudamericano 4 Naciones B. Results from 2017 saw them winning promotion. Also involved a year ago was Nicaragua. Yet for 2018 the country is not involved.

In the 2017 competition Panama were beaten by Nicaragua. Today, Los Diablos Rojos opened their campaign very differently. Their 12 point victory at the Estadio Olímpico José Simón Azcona will see a notable gain in the Americas Rankings for Panama. For Honduras it will see a fall.

Despite the defeat Honduras did very well in what was their first match since Americas Rugby News introduced the Americas Rankings feature.  In terms of the players the performance included an excellent two tries from right winger Ostin Ramírez who blitzed the Panamanian defense.

Also scoring were centers Mauricio Carranza,  and Jeff Ortega for one try each. Scrum half Walter Gonzales converted one of the four tries and also landed a penalty.

The result was a loss but Honduras did come away with a bonus point. They did so by scoring four tries in the match. Honduras will be chasing a win next weekend. They travel to El Salvador to play the second of three matches in the tournament. Panama host El Salvador in the final fixture on August 25.