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Old Christians Club defeated Montevideo rivals Old Boys 43-13 today to be crowned the 2019 Uruguayan champions. The final was a match packed with Uruguayan test players and was the ending of an era as attention turns to professionalism beginning in 2020.
Old Christians Club led the match throughout. Yet with the teams competing fiercely it took over a quarter of play for points to be registered. Los Teros outside back, Federico Favaro opened the scoring with a 21st minute penalty.
Old Boys would hit-back to level the scores in the 37th minute but Old Christians the game’s opening try two minutes later. Touching down was Santiago Arata for the first of three tries in the final.
On the stroke of half-time former Teros fly half Germán Albanel landed a second penalty. With it the half-time scores were 10-6 in favor of Old Christians Club.
The colorful and passionate supporters at the Estadio Charrúa contributed to the first half. Their chanting made it a memorable final.
In the second half Arata took three minutes to score his second try. The score gave Old Christians Club a 15-6 lead. With the third quarter closing Teros N8 Manuel Diana touched down for the club’s third try which Favaro converted.
The 14 point lead became 23 when Arata completed his hat-trick in the 64th minute. The Old Boys managed to respond for their opening try in the 72nd minute though it would be their final points of the match.
Back-to-back tries from Old Christians Club then secured them a 43-13 final winning victory. The victory marked the fourth title in the past five years.
