Peñarol return to winning ways against Olímpia Lions

Peñarol returned to winning ways this afternoon. The Uruguayan team were 29-10 winners over the Olímpia Lions at the Estadio Charrúa in Montevideo. The match was Peñarol’s fifth win from six Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) matches this season.

Peñarol won the match by two tries to one. The team had disallowed scored, though the path to victory was in playing the percentages to give Martín Roger opportunities to kick for goal. Roger slotted seven out of nine kicks at goal in ther match. His return of 19 points was positive given the challenging conditions provided by the strong wind.

Two early Roger penalties gave Peñarol a 6-0 lead. Sebastián Urbieta hit-back for the Olímpia Lions. His 18th minute penalty would be the only first half points for the Paraguayan franchise.

Sustained pressure eventually saw Peñarol finding their way over. Los Teros hooker Facundo Gattas touched down for the only first half try. It was a set-piece move wherein Peñarol scored off a rolling-maul from an attacking lineout. Roger converted the 28th minute try and with a late penalty Peñarol were in firm control, leading 16-3 at half-time.

The Uruguayans were not looking at a bonus point win. To the contrary, Peñarol were more than happy to take opportunities in the form of Roger kicking for goal. He did miss two early opportunities in the second-half; yet, he made up for both as the match continued.

The teams each scored one second half try each. The first went to the Olímpia Lions. The team battered away at the try line. Lucas Santa Cruz had two carries before fellow flanker, the Paraguay-eligible, Jerónimo Gòmez Vara found his way over. The conversion made it a 19-10 scoreline.

Peñarol’s response came nine minutes later. Replacement foward Eric Do Santos ran in to a hole to score his second try of the SLAR season. Roger converted to put Peñarol out of reach. There was still time for Roger to add a further three points to complete the scoring.

Both teams will now begin preparing for round seven on Friday. The Olímpia Lions will look to rebound against Selknam while Peñarol will be up against Os Cobras.

SCORING

PENAROL – 29
Tries: Gattas (28′), Do Santos (68′)
Conversion: Roger 2 (29′ 69′)
Penalties: Roger 5 (7′, 11′, 39′ 54′, 80′)
Yellow Card: Milan 44′

OLÍMPIA LIONS – 10
Try: J Gómez Vara (59′)
Conversion: Ledesma (60′)
Penalties: Urbieta (18′),

TEAMS

PENAROL
1 Juan Echeverría, 2 Facundo Gattas, 3 Diego Arbelo, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Nahuel Milan, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Conrado Roura, 9 Tomás Inciarte, 10 Martín Roger, 11 Rodrigo Silva, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt.) 13 Nicolás Freitas, 14 Mateo Viñals, 15 José Maria Iruleguy

Replacements: 16 Ezequiel Ramos, 17 Facundo Pomponio, 18 Matías Benítez, 19 Eric Do Santos, 20 Carlos Deus, 21 Marcos Chamyan, 22 Juan Manuel Alonso, 23 Santiago Alvarez

OLÍMPIA LIONS
1 Daniel Cabral, 2 Axel Zapata (capt.), 3 Lucas Favre, 4 Carlos Repetto, 5 Mauro Rebessone, 6 Jerónimo Gómez Vara, 7 Lucas Santa Cruz, 8 Marcos Riquelme, 9 Ignacio Inchauspe, 10 Sebastián Urbieta, 11 Juan González, 12 Franco Bullentini, 13 Diego Argaña, 14 Leopoldo Herrera, 15 Martín Bogado

Replacements: 16 Mariano Muntaner, 17 Martín Sitjar, 18 Luis Enrique Quinteros, 19 Mariano Garcete, 20 Matías Gómez Vara, 21 Joaquín Pellandini, 22 Máximo Ledesma, 23 Marcelo Matiauda

Referee: Tomás Bertazza (Argentina)