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Chile’s historic year concluded on Friday in Dublin, Ireland. Los Cóndores fielded an experimental line-up to take-on United Rugby Championship (URC) side Leinster. The Irish province won the contest 40-3.
The new-look halves pair of Nicolás Herreros and Diego Warnken had Chile playing an attacking style of rugby. Chile were close to opening with a try to Gaspar Moltedo. The wingers broke clear down the left before Leinster were penalized and Warnken sgave Chile a 3-0 lead in the 4th minute.
Leinster scored all the remaining points of the match. An attacking lineout saw Lee Barron throwing to Brian Deeny and joining on the back of a maul to score the game’s opening try.
The second try mirrored the first. Barron through to Deeny who joined the maul. Charlie Tector landed the conversion to give Leinster a 12-3 lead. Good play from Chile followed only for Diego Escobar to have the ball ripped off him.
Leinster closed out the opening quarter with their third try. Scrum-half Cormac Foley touched down following a hand-off. Ireland 7’s player Andrew Smith went over for the fourth with Tector adding the conversion to make it a 26-3 contest at half-time.
Clemente Saavedra had a good attack for Chile but Leinster recovered to hold their lines. At the other end Nick McCarthy broke the line to set up Seán O’Brien for a try.
The remainder of the match saw Chile playing good rugby. The forwards were busy but no points were scored. Meanwhile, Leinster did not add further points of their own.
Chile will play again in 2023. Los Cóndores match schedule remains unconfirmed. One possibility includes playing a test match or home-and-away matches against Uruguay. Another is for matches against Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. A final possibility is to host Canada and the USA.
TEAMS
LEINSTER
1 Michael Milne, 2 Lee Barron, 3 Thomas Clarkson, 4 Brian Deeny, 5 Cormac Daly, 6 Rhys Ruddock, 7 Conall Boomer, 8 Seán O’Brien, 9 Cormac Foley, 10 Charlie Tector, 11 Andrew Smith, 12 Ben Brownlee, 13 Liam Turner (capt.), 14 Rob Russell, 15 Chris Cosgrave
Replacements: 16 John McKee, 17 Marcus Hanan, 18 Thomas Connolly, 19 Ross Molony, 20 Scott Penny, 21 Nick McCarthy, 22 Sam Prendergast, 23 Colm Hogan
CHILE
1 Salvador Lues, 2 Diego Escobar, 3 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 4 Pablo Huete, 5 Javier Eissmann, 6 Martín Sigren (capt.), 7 Ignacio Silva, 8 Clemente Saavedra, 9 Nicolás Herreros, 10 Diego Warnken, 11 Gaspar Moltedo, 12 Clemente Armstrong, 13 Matías Garafulic, 14 Lucas Carvallo, 15 Santiago Videla
Replacements: 16 Tomás Dussaillant, 17 Javier Carrasco, 18 Matías Dittus, 19 Santiago Pedrero, 20 Raimundo Martínez, 21 Joaquín Milesi, 22 Benjamín Videla, 23 Rodrigo Fernández
Referee: Peter Martin (GB-NIR)
