Selknam down Peñarol in stunning upset

Selknam downed Peñarol 27-17 in a stunning upset. Selknam’s win was hard fought and gave followers of the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby a match to remember. Selknam were dominant to the extent that Peñarol’s scoring was restricted to 3 points until the final 10 minutes of play.

The win carries two important connotations. First, it offers evidence that SLAR is improving the level of play in the region. Second, it underlines Chile as a contender for South America’s regional Rugby World Cup 2023 qualifiers. Uruguay will be studying the videos in depth; participants from North America will need to also do their homework.

Matías Dittus opened the scoring. The tight head prop continued his impressive SLAR campaign by scoring from a close range pick-and-go. The 7th minute try was the only try until the 70th minute mark. In between the two extremes Santiago Videla and Martín Roger kicked penalties.

Roger’s 14th minute strike turned out to be Peñarol’s only points of the opening half. Videla responded with two in the first half and three more in the second. Many of Videla’s kicks came as a result of Selknam outperforming Peñarol in the contact area. The smash brothers: Martín Sigren and captain Ignacio Silva were on top of their game.

Peñarol’s time came late. When it did it was powerful. The injection of replacements combined with cards for Selknam gave the Uruguayan franchise two tries. Replacement hooker Guillermo Pujadas and No8 Conrado Roura scored. Roger’s conversions made it a 20-17 contest with one minute remaining.

Peñarol looked to run out from their own try line. Selknam’s José Larenas intercepted to confirm victory for the Chilean franchise and deny Peñarol a bonus point. The win guarantees a rematch between the teams in the Semi Final. It also means that Los Jaguares XV will face the Olímpia Lions.

There is one remaining round before the Semi Finals. It will see Peñarol facing Los Jaguares XV; Selknam playing against Os Cobras; and the Olímpia Lions will face Los Cafeteros Pro.

SCORING

PEÑAROL 17
Try: Pujadas 70′, Roura 79′
Conversion: Roger 71′, 79′
Penalty: Roger 14′

SELKNAM 27
Try: Dittus 7′, Larenas 80′
Conversion: Videla 7′, 80′
Penalty: Videla 23′ 36′, 41′ 54′, 63′
Yellow Card: C Saavedra 14′, Portillo 66′
Red Card: Velarde 73′

TEAMS

PEÑAROL
1 Ignacio Peculo, 2 Facundo Gattas, 3 Facundo Pomponio, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Nahuel Milan, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Marcos Chamyan, 8 Santiago Civetta, 9 Manuel Nogúes, 10 Martín Roger, 11 Baltazar Amaya, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt.), 13 Nicolás Freitas, 14 Rodrigo Silva, 15 José María Iruleguy

Replacements: 16 Guillermo Pujadas, 17 Juan Echeverría, 18 Diego Arbelo, 19 Carlos Deus, 20 Conrado Roura, 21 Lucas Bianchi, 22 Tomás Inciarte, 23 Federico Favaro

SELKNAM
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Augusto Bohme, 3 Matías Dittus, 4 Santiago Portillo, 5 Clemente Saavedra, 6 Martín Sigren, 7 Ignacio Silva (capt.), 8 Nicolás Garafulic, 9 Patricio Baronio, 10 Ignacio Albornoz, 11 Franco Velarde, 12 Santiago Videla, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Matías Garafulic, 15 Rodrigo Fernández

Replacements: 16 Tomás Dussaillant, 17 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 18 Salvador Lues, 19 Tomãs Orchard, 20 Bautista Stavile, 21 Lukas Carvallo, 22 José Larenas, 23 Alfonso Escobar

Venue: Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo, Uruguay
Referee: Damian Schneider (Argentina)