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Uruguay fell to a 45-21 defeat today in Wales, dropping their tour opener to the Cardiff Blues. Dubbed the Syft International Challenge the fixture was part of the November Internationals.
The South Americans had a dream start to the match. The Major League bound Ignacio Dotti went over for the game’s opening try in the 5th minute. Converting was winger Federico Favaro, one of many fringe players given a chance to start on tour.
The Cardiff Blues hit-back with two tries of their own. Scores from Alun Lawrence and Max Llewellyn saw the Welsh region leading 12-7 at half time.
In the second half the Cardiff Blues came flying out of the blocks. Ethan Lewis, and Ioan Davies crossed for tries in the 43rd and 49th minutes powering the Welsh region out to a 24-7.
A fifth try from the home side, this time by Harri Millard, saw Los Teros even further behind. But after trailing 31-7 the Uruguayan’s would enjoy an impressive period as they ran in two tries of their own.
The back-to-back scores from Uruguay were two minutes apart. The injection of regular starter Felipe Berchesi was decisive. He would score one, convert it and also convert Facundo Gattas’ try.
Berchesi came on for Rodrigo Silva. Usually a fullback, Silva was unable to have the same impact on the game from pivot. His opponent, Dan Fish had an impressive match. Fish linked with Rhys Gill to see the Cardiff Blues respond and end Uruguay’s chances of a comeback.
With time up on the clock the Cardiff Blues added a further seven points, doing so via a penalty try.
Uruguay and Wales are to meet in pool play in RWC 2019. Today’s fixture served both countries as a means of preparing. Los Teros will play Fiji and Georgia in their two opening games and have a three day turn-around, the minimum permitted by World Rugby. The URU planned the current tour as preparation. They now face Ulster in Belfast on Friday.
SCORING
CARDIFF BLUES
Try: Lawrence, Llewellyn, Lewis, Davies, Millard, Gill, Penalty try
Conversion: Morgan (4)
URUGUAY
Try: Dotti, Berchesi, Gattas
Conversion: Favaro, Berchesi (2)
TEAMS
CARDIFF BLUES
15 Matthew Morgan, 14 Aled Summerhill, 13 Harri Millard, 12 Max Llewellyn, 11 Cam Lewis, 10 Dan Fish (capt), 9 Lewis Jones, 8 Alun Lawrence, 7 Sion Bennett, 6 Shane Lewis-Hughes, 5 Rory Thornton, 4 James Down, 3 Keiron Assiratti, 2 Liam Belcher, 1 Rhys Carre
Replacements: 16 Ethan Lewis, 17 Rhys Gill, 18 Will Davies-King, 19 Miles Normandale, 20 Ioan Rhys Davies, 21 Jamie Hill, 22 Ben Thomas, 23 Ioan Davies, 24 Peter Lloyd
URUGUAY
15 Gastón Mieres, 14 Leandro Levias, 13 Juan Manuel Cat, 12 Agustín Della Corte, 11 Federico Favaro, 10 Rodrigo Silva, 9 Santiago Arata, 8 Manuel Diana, 7 Leandro Segredo, 6 Juan Manuel Gaminara (capt.), 5 Manuel Leindekar, 4 Ignacio Dotti, 3 Juan Echeverría, 2 Germán Kessler, 1 Matías Benítez
Replacements: 16 Facundo Gattas, 17 Mateo Sanguinetti, 18 Juan Pablo Rombys, 19 Manuel Ardao, 20 Diego Magno, 21 Juan Diego Ormaechea, 22 Tomás Iniciarte, 23 Andrés Vilaseca, 24 Felipe Berchesi
