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An awesome first half performance from Argentina saw Los Pumitas stunning France to book a home Semi Final in the U20 Championship. Los Pumitas were the story of the day as they rebounded from their opening fixture loss against Wales to continue the solid work from their win against Fiji to cleanly defeat the 2018 champions.
Argentina would win 47-26 against Francia, doing so after having held a 27-0 lead after just 25 minutes. The remarkable start saw a team with a purpose defending their homeland against invaders.
They would do so with amazing early tries, including prop Thomas Gallo scoring a solo try in which he ran 61 meters, fended off a defender, stepped and touched down.
Another saw Juan Martín González finishing off a second sublime try, this time started by winger Mateo Carreras who made a clean break before support play put the flanker over.
The game also saw the referee leaving his mark. Both teams lost a player to a red card in the opening quarter. The first to go was France’s Sacha Zeguer while Argentine winger Rodrigo Isgro followed. Both were deemed to have dangerously tackled an opponent.
Organizing play well was fly half Joaquín de la Vega Medía. he was also on his game from the kicking-tee. With the Pumitas pack providing excellent go-forward ball France were ultimately four scores behind and seeing their foothold in the Semi Finals disappearing.
Yet France had a chance when the 14 on 14 game became 14 on 13. Los Pumitas lost Lucas Bur to a yellow card in the 27th minute. France would succeed in opening their scoring with a try to scrum-half Quentin Delord.
de la Mendía completed the opening half scoring with a late penalty. With it Los Pumitas were ahead 34-7 and had a Semi Finals spot within their hands.
France needed magic to fight their way back and they certainly would have the upper hand in the early stages of the second half. Impressive play from replacement Jordan Joseph would see the son of Haitian parents lift his side.
Three minutes after entering the match Joseph would score for France. An additional try would follow several minutes later this time with impressive winger just managing Donovan Taofifenua to touch down in the left corner.
When Matthis Label scored the crowd would be silenced as the thought that Los Pumitas did not yet have the result wrapped-up suddenly appeared. However with penalties and a try to captain Juan Pablo Castro the result was secured and a Home Semi Final.
SCORING
ARGENTINA (47)
Try: Gallo, García, González, Dimcheff, Castro
Conversion: de la Mendía (4), Roger
Penalty: de la Vega Mendía (3), Roger
Yellow Card: Bur
Red Card: Isgro
FRANCE (26)
Try: Delord, Joseph, Taofifenua, Lebel
Conversion: Carbonel (3)
Red Card: Zegueur
TEAMS
ARGENTINA
1 Thomas Gallo, 2 Pablo Dimcheff, 3 Francisco Coria, 4 Manuel Burnstein, 5 Lucas Bur 6 Juan Cruz Pérez Rachel, 7 Juan Martín González, 8 Bautista Pedemonte, 9 Gonzalo García, 10 Joaquín de la Vega Mendía, 11 Mateo Carreras, 12 Gerónimo Prisciantelli, 13 Juan Pablo Castro (Capt.), 14 Rodrigo Isgro, 15 Ignacio Mendy
FRANCE
1 Jean Baptiste Gros, 2 Rayne Barka, 3 Paul Mallez, 4 Gauthier Maravat, 5 Killian Geraci, 6 Loic Hocquet, 7 Sacha Zeguer, 8 Thibault Hamonou, 9 Quentin Delord, 10 Louis Carbonel, 11 Matthis Lebel, 12 Julien Delbouis, 13 Arthur Vincent (capt.), 14 Vincent Pinto, 15 Alexandre De Nardi
