Spain defeat feisty Chile in Curicó

Spain were successful in game two of their South American tour as they defeated a feisty Chile 29-22 this evening at the Estadio La Granja in Curicó. The win sees Los Leones traveling to Montevideo with an eye on a perfect 3-0 tour.

Early on Spain had control of the match. Los Leones would maul their way to and over the try line. Scoring was scrum-half Tomás Munilla with David Mélé adding the conversion.

Los Cóndores would find their feet and strike back with an impressive score. Fullback Christian Huerta broke the line and ran to within one metre of the Leones tryline. Having been tackled short the arrival of support saw the Chileans crossing to score in the following phase.

Chile also got an early score via a Santiago Videla, with it they were 10-7 ahead. Spain would not look to draw level with a penalty of their own. Rather the Spanish response would come through running rugby. A break from Manu Mora and support play from Richard Stewart would allow for Julen Goia to score Spain’s second try.

In a vastly different display than that from the Americas Rugby Championship (ARC), Chile would respond again to score a further try. Their try would set-up a one point half time deficit with Los Reopens leading 17-16.

A solid start to the second half from Spain would see them deep in Chilean territory. No8 Afa Tauli would cross for a try to ease the pressure, though with Mélé unable to convert Chile remained within one converted try.

The miss would see a nervous Spain under threat of an upset defeat for the remainder of the match. This was underlined with Chile went over to reduce the scoreline to a two point game with Spain ahead 24-22.

Spain’s replacement prop Thierry Feuteu would give Los Leones the impact they needed to get out of the danger zone. His try from a maul would be the final scoring act of the match though Chile would have several minutes of raids deep in the Spanish 22 immediately before the game’s end.

As was the case last weekend against Brazil the performance of Spain was below their best. They did, nevertheless record a second win of their tour to South America. Their remaining match will be against the RWC 2019 bound Uruguay next Saturday in Montevideo.

 

SCORING

CHILE 22
Tries – D. Saavedra (21’)
Cons – S. Videla 1/1 (22’)
Pens – S. Videla 5/6 (17’, 32’, 39’, 52′, 62′)
Yellow cards – P. Huete (36’)

SPAIN 29
Tries – T. Munilla (12’), J. Goia (24’), A. Tauli (48′), T. Feuteu (71′)
Cons – D. Mélé 3/4 (13’, 25’, 49′)
Pens – D. Mélé 1/1 (37’)
Drop goals – D. Mélé 0/1
Yellow cards – V. Sánchez (61′)

 

TEAMS

CHILE
1 Ramón Ayarza (17 Mauricio Gómez 72′), 2 Tomás Dussaillant (16 Augusto Böhme 49′), 3 Matías Dittus (19 Javier Carrasco 49′), 4 Pablo Huete, 5 Augusto Sarmiento (18 Javier Eissmann 59′), 6 Martín Sigren (capt.), 7 Nicolás Garafulic (20 Clemente Saavedra 70′*), 8 Ignacio Silva, 9 Juan Pablo Larenas (22 Beltrán Vergara 69′), 10 Santiago Videla, 11 Julio Blanc, 12 Iñaki Ayarza (21 Vicente Ayarza 75′), 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Lucca Avelli, 15 Christian Huerta (23 José Ignacio Larenas 72′)

*20 Clemente Saavedra left the field at 77′ with no replacement

SPAIN
1 Fernando Lopez (capt.) (16 Thierry Feuteu 57′), 2 Vicente Del Hoyo (17 Steve Barnes 47′-69′), 3 Alberto Blanco (18 Mattius Pisapa 57′), 4 Manuel Mora, 5 Mike Walker-Fitton (19 Juan Pablo Guido 53′), 6 Victor Sánchez, 7 Oier Goia (20 Michael Hogg 62′), 8 Afa Tauli, 9 Tomás Munilla (21 Facundo Munilla 53′), 10 David Mélé, 11 Federico Casteglioni (23 Guillermo Domínguez 53′), 12 Álvar Gimeno, 13 Ignacio Contardi (22 Marcos Puig 69′), 14 Julen Goia, 15 Richard Stewart

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Santiago Romero (URU)