Peñarol into SLAR Final with hard-fought win over Selknam

Peñarol are the first team to qualify for a Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) final. The Uruguayan side booked their place with a 17-14 win over Selknam. The match was a game of two halves; Peñarol scored all 17 first half points and Selknam scored all 14 second half points.

At half time there was reason to believe that the result was official. In addition to holding a 17-0 lead, Peñarol also played the vast majority of the attacking rugby in the opening half. An early assault saw Peñarol earning a quick 3-0 lead. Martín Roger landed an 8th minute penalty to open the scoring.

Roger’s strike would be the only penalty of the match. He missed a later attempt while Selknam never kicked for goal from a penalty. Selknam were unable to kick for penalty goals due to who the opening half unfolded. Peñarol No8 Conrado Roura intercepted a Santiago Videla pass and ran from inside his own half.

While the first try was opportunistic, the second was pure skill and execution. Nicolás Freitas attacked wide down the left side. He kicked over the defense, regathered and of-loaded to Tomás Inciarte in the tackle. Inciarte ran in to give Roger a simplified shot at goal. It put Peñarol 17-0 up.

Selknam were down but not out. They pushed for an opening try in the final minute of the first half. Captain Ignacio Silva went within inches of scoring only to half the ball knocked out of his arms in a double-tackle. The incident was a knock-on and half-time was called.

Selknam needed to score early in the first half. They would do so with the Chilean bulldozer Matías Dittus barging over. He just managed to touch the ball down on the try line. No player deserved the try more; Dittus had wreaked havoc to the Peñarol scrum throughout the contest.

Videla converted to make it a 10 point deficit. He added a second conversion twelve minutes later. It came following an inevitable try. Selknam spent minutes on attack in Peñarol. The Chilean side turned down shots at goal to take scrums and kick for the corner. The try came with Santiago Portillo diving over.

Peñarol looked to respond from the kick-off. A promising attack saw Inciarte kicking over and chasing. Videla gathered it inside his own try zone and looked to run it out. Inciarte tackled him just outside the try zone. Then Federico Favaro arrived only to make direct shoulder to the head contact. Favaro was red carded.

The final minutes were tense but no points were scored. Both sides had a scrum in the final minute. The final whistle came following a Selknam knock-on. The Chilean team’s Semi Final exit was the fourth match between Selknam and Peñarol. They have a 2-2 record.

 

SCORING

PEÑAROL 17
Try: Roura 15′, Inciarte 30′
Conversion: Roger 2 – 15′, 31′
Penalty: Roger 8′
Red Card: Favaro 69′

SELKNAM 14
Try: Dittus 51′, Portillo 64′
Conversion: Videla 2 – 52′, 64′

 

TEAMS

PEÑAROL
1 Juan Echeverría, 2 Guillermo Pujadas, 3 Diego Arbelo, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Nahuel Milan, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Conrado Roura, 9 Manuel Nogués, 10 Martín Roger, 11 Nicolás Freitas, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt.), 13 Tomás Inciarte, 14 Federico Favaro, 15 José Maria Iruleguy

Replacements: 16 Facundo Gattas, 17 Ignacio Peculo, 18 Matías Benítez, 19 Alejandro Nieto, 20 Eric Dosantos, 21 Carlos Deus, 22 Felipe Arcos, 23 Juan Manuel Alonso

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

Replacements: 16 Tomás Dussailant, 17 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 18 Salvador Lues, 19 Thomas Orchard, 20 Bautista Stavile, 21 Lukas Carvallo, 22 José Larenas, 23 Raimundo Martínez