Scrappy win for Argentina over dogged Romania

After a 29-year-wait, Argentina returned to play Romania in Bucharest. The test match was a welcome fresh fixture to offer something unusual to the familiar international fixtures. While the match was not Argentina’s finest, Julián Montoya made a successful debut as captain of Los Pumas. Argentina were 24-17 winners.

Romania scored first. Fullback Ionel Melinte slotted a 5th minute penalty for the Oaks. He missed a similar opportunity six minutes later. He made up for the miss with a 22nd minute penalty. It followed the game’s opening try; Rodrigo Bruni ran inches from the touchline to dive over and score for Los Pumas.

Bruni was in the thick of the action. He charged forward from the base of a scrum. The go-forward ball saw him subsequently making a powerful carry. Spaces opened and Santiago Cordero ran around three Romanian backs for the score.

Nicolás Sánchez was not finding his target. Romania were enjoying comparative success at the other end. Melinte made it a 10-9 scoreline after 32 minutes.

The Stejarii were in the game, though pressure saw Argentina go into the interval with a 16-9 lead. The forwards won a penalty try minutes before the break. It also saw the Stejarii down to 14 as Cristi Chirica was yellow carded.

Romana were fired-up in the second-half. The Stejarii turned-down two regular shots at goal to kick for the corner. Their commitment was rewarded with hooker Eugen Capatana scoring a push-over try.

Argentina had the better of play yet could not capitalize. Sánchez threw an intercept pass when Los Pumas were close to scoring. Melinte then brought the scores level with his fourth penalty of the match.

Argentina had little variety in their play. They needed an individual to pull off a play. It came with Cordero breaking the line and using his dancing feet to run deep. He off-loaded to debutant Juan Martín González who scored while being tackled.

It was a scrappy win for Argentina. Los Pumas now turn their attention to Wales. Los Pumas will need to improve against the Six Nations champions who they face in two test matches.

 

SCORING

ROMANIA 17
Try – E. Capatana (45′)
Con – I. Melinte 0/1
Pen – I. Melinte 4/5 (5′, 22′, 32′, 62′)
YC – C. Chirica (36′)

ARGENTINA 24
Try – Bruni (14′), Cordero (24′), Penalty Try (36′), González (73′)
Con – Sánchez 0/2, No Kick (36′), Miotti (74′)
YC – Bertranou (78′)

 

TEAMS

ROMANIA
1 Alexandru Savin (17 Ionel Badiu HT), 2 Eugen Capatana (16 Florin Bardasu 50′), 3 Alexandru Tarus (18 Vasile Balan 55′), 4 Florian Rosu (19 Marius Antonescu HT), 5 Adrian Motoc, 6 Cristi Chirica (21 Vlad Neculau 61′), 7 Cristi Boboc (20 Mihai Macovei HT), 8 Andrei Gorin, 9 Gabriel Rupanu (22 Florin Surugiu 45′), 10 Daniel Plai, 11 Nicolas Onutu, 12 Alexandru Bucur, 13 Taylor Gontineac, 14 Ionut Dumitru (23 Robert Neagu 55′), 15 Ionel Melinte

ARGENTINA
1 Facundo Gigena (17 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro 52′), 2 Julián Montoya (16 Facundo Bosch 61′), 3 Enrique Pieretto (18 Santiago Medrano 52′), 4 Marcos Kremer, 5 Tomás Lavanini (19 Facundo Isa 45′), 6 Pablo Matera, 7 Francisco Gorrissen, 8 Rodrigo Bruni (20 Juan Martín González 69′), 9 Tomás Cubelli (21 Gonzalo Bertranou 75′), 10 Nicolás Sánchez (22 Domingo Miotti 59′), 11 Juan Imhoff (23 Juan Cruz Mallía 48′), 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente, 13 Matías Moroni, 14 Bautista Delguy, 15 Santiago Cordero

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)
Assistants: Pierre Brousset (France) & Craig Evans (Wales)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (France)