Uruguay ‘A’ battle past Chile ‘A’ in Americas Pacific Challenge

Uruguay ‘A’ battled past Chile ‘A’ this evening. The home side were 24-17 winners in a round two match of the 2021 Americas Pacific Challenge. Uruguay ‘A’ outscored Chile by seven points in the second half. This enabled Uruguay ‘A’ to win by seven points after the teams were all even at 10-10 at half-time.

The first half was very tight. The early scoring was 3-3 as Diego Warnken and Matías D’Avanzo exchanged penalties. They both landed a conversion in the half to, doing so after Mateo Viñals scored for the Uruguayans and Agustín Fernández did so for Chile ‘A’. Both were players from the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby who were outside of the recent RWC qualifiers.

Uruguay ‘A’ stormed to a lead in the third quarter. It was on the back of sustained pressure and a moment of magic from fullback Baltazar Amaya. Following a break, the fullback offloaded to Lucas Bianchi who put on the afterburners to get to the try zone and score.

Next up was a powerful maul from the forwards. Hooker Guillermo Pujadas came away with a second try for Uruguay ‘A’ in the second half and a third for the match.

Chile ‘A’ responded in the 62nd minute. Raid after raid of pick-and-go’s ended with replacement Joaquín Milesi scoring. The conversion marked the final score of the match. Uruguay ‘A’ were able to hold off Chile ‘A’ to see out a victory.

The teams now have three rest days before the final round. Uruguay ‘A’ will take on the Argentina XV while Chile ‘A’ face the USA Selects in the concluding round of the competition. The Argentina XV are coming off an epic 146-7 win over Paraguay ‘A’ while the USA Selects were beaten 33-20 by Brazil earlier today.

 

SCORING

URUGUAY 24
Tries – M. Viñals (18′), L. Bianchi (42′), G. Pujadas (53′)
Cons – M. D’Avanzo 1/1 (19′), J. Zuccarino 2/2 (43′, 54′)
Pens – M. D’Avanzo 1/1 (14′)

CHILE 17
Tries – A. Fernández (30′), J. Milesi (62′)
Cons – D. Warnken 2/2 (31′, 63′)
Pens – D. Warnken 1/1 (8′)

 

TEAMS

URUGUAY ‘A’
1 Mateo Perillo (18 Santiago Bonasso 70′), 2 Guillermo Pujadas (16 Emiliano Faccennini 63′), 3 Mathias Franco (17 Ignacio Péculo 12′-19′, HT), 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Juanjuan Garese (capt.) (20 Lucas Piriz 55′), 6 Lucas Bianchi (19 Sidney Werner 63′), 7 Tomás Etcheverry, 8 Carlos Deus, 9 Santiago Álvarez (22 Santiago Percivale 63′), 10 Matías D’Avanzo (21 Juan Zuccarino 20′), 11 Bautista Basso, 12 Felipe Arcos Pérez, 13 Koba Brazionis (23 Ignacio Álvarez 65′), 14 Mateo Viñals, 15 Baltazar Amaya

CHILE ‘A’
1 Vittorio Lastra (17 Salvador Lues 24′), 2 Diego Escobar (16 Jorge Delgado 73′), 3 Esteban Inostroza (18 Mauricio Gómez 52′), 4 Agustín Fernández (20 Thomas Orchard 52′), 5 Santiago Pedrero, 6 Agustín Pérez (19 Maximiliano Silva 79′), 7 Raimundo Martínez, 8 Ernesto Tchimino (21 Joaquín Milesi 52′), 9 Lukas Carvallo (capt.), 10 Diego Warnken, 11 Vicente Tredinick, 12 Juan Ignacio Piña (23 Tomás Álvarado 54′), 13 Clemente Armstrong, 14 Gaspar Moltedo, 15 Luca Strabucchi

Not used: 22 Benjamín Videla

 

MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Tomás Bertazza (Argentina)
Assistants: Gonzalo de Achaval (Argentina) & Cauã Ricardo (Brazil)
TMO: Francisco Pesce (Uruguay)