Argentina overpowers Brazil in South American 4 Nations

Two tries from hooker Ignacio Ruiz in a span of six minutes propelled the Argentina XV to a 40-15 victory over a Brazil XV in their South American 4 Nations clash on Wednesday. The scores gave the Argentines a commanding 26-7 lead from which their opponents would not recover.

It was in fact Brazil who were fastest out of the gate with Lorenzo Massari diving over for a try in the first minute, but Argentina responded almost immediately. Teo Castiglioni scored his first try of the day, converting his own to even the scores at 4 minutes.

The scrum was fiercely contested all game with both sides winning penalties. An indiscretion from Matheus Rocha at a 5-meter scrum, however, left the referee with no option but to send the Brazilian tighthead to the bin and award a penalty try to Argentina.

With Rocha off and the Brazilian pack shorthanded there was no stopping the Argentinean driving maul. Ruiz was the benefit, touching twice in near-identical scores just six minutes apart. They would be reduced to 14 themselves soon after with Santiago Ruiz shown yellow for a cynical foul.

A powerful burst off an attacking scrum from teenage No8 Adrio de Melo brought the Brazilians to within a meter of the tryline and Gabriel Paganini was on hand to take it the rest of the way. Massari went from hero to villain, receiving a 10-minute break for an intentional knock-on, but there would be no further scores before halftime.

Brazil were again first to score after the break with a penalty goal from Josh Reeves closing the gap to 26-15. That would be as close as they would come, with two quick scores sealing the result for Argentina. The first came from Castiglioni on a cheeky quick tap penalty, the second a line break and clean run-in for Matías Osadczuk.

The result sees Argentina advancing to the final round of games unbeaten with only hosts Uruguay standing between them and the title. With no wins from two games, Brazil will need to defeat a resurgent Chile to avoid the Wooden Spoon.

 

SCORING

ARGENTINA 40
Tries – T. Castiglioni 2 (4′, 47′), Penalty try (14′), I. Ruiz 2 (21′, 27′), M. Osadczuk (50′)
Cons – T. Castiglioni 3/4 (5′, 28′, 48′), S. Mare 1/1 (51′)
Yellow cards – S. Ruiz (30′)

BRAZIL 15
Tries – L. Massari (1′), G. Paganini (34′)
Cons – L. Tranquez 1/2 (2′)
Pens – J. Reeves 1/1 (43′)
Yellow cards – M. Rocha (14′), L. Massari (38′), R. Teixeira (71′)

 

TEAMS

ARGENTINA XV
1 Francisco Minervino, 2 Ignacio Ruiz, 3 Lucas Favre, 4 Federico Gutiérrez, 5 Franco Molina, 6 Lautaro Bavaro, 7 Santiago Ruiz, 8 Javier Ortega Desio, 9 Joaquín Pellandini, 10 Santiago Mare, 11 Matías Osadczuk, 12 Teo Castiglioni, 13 Tomás Cubilla (capt.), 14 Leopoldo Herrera, 15 Martín Cancelliere

Replacements: 16 Martín Vaca, 17 Javier Díaz, 18 Estanislao Carullo, 19 Rodrigo Martínez, 20 Ramiro Tallone, 21 Lautaro Bazán Vélez, 22 Juan Pablo Castro, 23 Facundo Ferrario, 24 Mateo Carreras, 25 Juan Cruz Pérez Rachel, 26 Santiago Portillo

BRAZIL XV
1 Leonardo de Souza, 2 Yan Rosetti, 3 Matheus Rocha, 4 Gabriel Oliveira, 5 Gabriel Paganini, 6 Devon Müller, 7 Rafael Teixeira, 8 Adrio de Melo, 9 Douglas Rauth, 10 Lucas Tranquez, 11 Lorenzo Massari, 12 Moisés Duque, 13 Felipe Sancery (capt.), 14 Robert Tenório, 15 Daniel Sancery

Replacements: 16 Lucas Abud, 17 Endy Willian, 18 Henrique Ferreira, 19 Alexandre Alves, 20 Kauã Guimarães, 21 Josh Reeves, 22 Felipe Cunha, 23 Laurent Bourda-Couhet, 24 Daniel Lima, 25 Matheus Claudio, 26 Guilherme Dias

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Frank Méndez (Chile)
Assistants: Francisco González (Uruguay) & Damián Schneider (Argentina)