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A star performance from Gastón Mieres saw Uruguay past Brazil, winning 36-13 in today’s World Cup qualifier. The result confirms Uruguay as South America 1 and Chile as South America 2. Uruguay await the winner of Canada vs the USA. The North American battle will take place in September in a home-and-away series. North America 1 will face South America 1 to determine who qualifies for RWC 2023 as Americas 1. The subsequent round of qualifying will see Chile taking-on the loser of South America 1 vs North America 1.
Brazil started the game well. Having immediately gotten themselves deep into the Uruguayan half they were rewarded with the opening points. The ever reliable Moisés Duque landed a penalty 4th minute penalty.
Los Teros had a nervous start; they were slow to find their feet. This was true in more ways than merely general play. Felipe Berchesi missed his first shot at goal. The 14th minute penalty miss would have levels the scores. Instead, Uruguay went ahead with a try. Rodrigo Silva ran down the sideline to touch down in the try zone. Berchesi’s conversion was again wide.
Uruguay was hit with a double blow in the 20th minute. Hooker Guillermo Pujadas was carried off with an ankle injury. Brazil won a scrum penalty from the restart, which Duque turned into three points to put Brazil back in front.
The Brazilian scrum was in command. Os Tupis won further penalties. Uruguay, though, was making breaks through the backs. Two came from Toronto Arrows’ winger Gastón Mieres. The second of which resulted in a try with Mieres just touching down on the line.
Brazil responded with force. The front-row won yet another scrum penalty. Brazil kicked for the corner and went for a lineout-maul combination. It gave them the dream outcome. Andrea Piardi awarded a penalty try and yellow carded Manuel Ardao for pulling down the advancing maul.
Uruguay looked to level the scores on half-time; however, the off-day continued for Berchesi. His attempted penalty hit the posts and went dead. With it Brazil went into the interval with a 13-10 lead.
Brazil needed to make sure Uruguay did not score twice in the second half. Two tries would mean a bonus point and would thus see Brazil eliminated regardless of the result. Good early defense gave Duque an opportunity to extend the lead. His shot at goal was off target.
Uruguay knew they needed to dig deep. They hit-back by doing what they do well. A lineout just inside the Brazilian half saw Uruguay tearing Brazil wide open. Mieres showed his pace yet again to sprint down the right touchline and score. Ten minutes later he was in again to polish off an excellent hat-trick.
Brazil’s forwards secured the win. They did so with a 66th minute penalty try. It saw André Arruda yellow carded and Uruguay up to a 29-13 lead. The one-man advantage saw Uruguay exploiting again. The lineout saw the weapon one again; though, this time it was an attacking maul. Juan Echeverría made up for the scrum flaws to score for Los Teros.
The full-time siren saw Uruguay comfortably home and through to the next round of RWC qualifiers. All eyes now turn to Canada’s far east as Canada have home advantage on September 04 against the USA. With attention on the north today’s result is a reminder that the battle to be Americas 1 is open.
SCORING
URUGUAY 36
Tries – R. Silva (16′), G. Mieres 3 (31′, 49′, 58′), Penalty try (65′), J. Echeverría (71′)
Cons – F. Berchesi 2/5 (32′, 50′), No kick (65′)
Pens – F. Berchesi 0/2
YC – M. Ardao (40′)
BRAZIL 13
Tries – Penalty try (39′)
Cons – No Kick (39′)
Pens – M. Duque 2/3 (4′, 21′)
DG – M. Duque 0/1
YC – A. Arruda (66′)
TEAMS
URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti (18 Matías Benítez 66′), 2 Guillermo Pujadas (16 Juan Echeverría 19′), 3 Diego Arbelo (17 Ignacio Péculo 70′), 4 Ignacio Dotti (21 Eric Dosantos 62′), 5 Manuel Leindekar (20 Diego Magno 66′), 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Manuel Diana (19 Franco Lamanna 68′), 9 Agustín Ormaechea, 10 Felipe Berchesi, 11 Nicolás Freitas, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt.), 13 Felipe Arcos Pérez, 14 Gastón Mieres (23 Federico Favaro 68′), 15 Rodrigo Silva (22 Felipe Etcheverry 68′)
BRAZIL
1 Leonel Moreno (17 Lucas Abud 56′), 2 Wilton Rebolo (16 Leonardo de Souza 70′), 3 Jardel Vettorato (18 Matheus Rocha 68′), 4 Matteo Dell’Acqua (20 Arthur Bergo 60′), 5 Gabriel Paganini (19 Adrio de Melo 72′), 6 Cléber Días, 7 Matheus Cláudio, 8 André Arruda, 9 Douglas Rauth (21 Felipe Cunha 60′), 10 Josh Reeves (22 Lucas Spago 60′), 11 Robert Tenório, 12 Moisés Duque, 13 Felipe Sancery (capt.), 14 Daniel Sancery, 15 Lucas Tranquez (23 Laurent Bourda-Couhet 58′)
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)
Assistant Referees: Gianlucca Gnacchi (Italy) & Gonzalo De Achaval (Argentina)
TMO: Marcelo Pilara (Argentina)
