Peñarol make light work of Cobras

Peñarol made light work of Os Cobras on Friday evening in Montevideo. The Uruguayans were relentless in exposing the weaker opposition. The 33-7 win came despite a competitive start to the contest in Montevideo.

A scoreless opening fifteen minutes saw the teams exchanging field position. It was ended with Ariel Rodrigues yellow carded for a cynical knock-down in his own in-goal. The penalty try put Peñarol in a lead which they held throughout the contest.

With a flick of the fingers Peñarol were 12-0 up. A second try came from nothing. Rodrigo Silva kicked through for Juan Manuel Alonso and Guillermo Juan Storace to chase. The former stopped the ball from going dead with the latter touching down in the try zone.

Os Cobras went from playing with 14 men to 13. Under the pressure of an advancing scrum, Os Cobras conceded a second penalty try. Loose head Levy Marinho was given ten minutes on the sidelines by referee Francisco Pesce.

The home side were now firmly on top. After just thirty minutes Peñarol sealed the bonus point try. Former Toronto Arrow Manuel Diana dotted down Peñarol’s fourth try. In good signs for World Cup considerations, Juan Andrés Zuccarino landed the conversion from the sideline.

The loss of two men to yellow cards hurt Os Cobras in the first half and again in the second. The half began with Robson Morais off the field and before he returned replacement Ben Donald was also yellow carded. With spaces opening up Peñarol captain Manuel Ardao crossed for a simple try.

Pablo Bouza emptied Peñarol’s bench early. The change of players coincided with a lack of points until the final quarter. Os Cobras opened their account five minutes from full-time. Lucas Spago converted his own try to slightly soften a heavy defeat.

With a 0-4 record in Super Rugby Americas 2023 questions must be asked over the tactics of the Brazilian side. Both teams will return to action next weekend. In round five of Super Rugby Americas 2023 Peñarol host Yacare in Montevideo while Os Cobras take-on Selknam in São Paulo.

SCORING

PENAROL 33
Try – Penalty Try 2 (16′, 24′); GC Storace  (17′); M Diana (29′); M Ardao (43′)
Con – No Kick 2 (16′, 24′); JA Zuccarino 2/3 (30′, 46′)

COBRAS 7
Try- L Spago (75′)
Con – L Spago 1/1
YC – A Rodrigues (16′); L Marinho (24′); R Morais (38′); B Donald (42′)

TEAMS

PENAROL
1 Mateo Perillo, 2 Emiliano Faccennini, 3 Diego Arbelo, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Eric Dosantos, 6 Manuel Ardao (capt.), 7 Carlos Deus, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Santiago Álvarez, 10 Juan Andrés Zuccarino, 11 Juan Manuel Alonso, 12 Guillermo Juan Storace, 13 Tomás Inciarte, 14 Gastón Mieres, 15 Rodrigo Silva

Replacements: 16 Guillermo Pujadas, 17 Matías Benítez, 18 Mathias Franco, 19 Juan Manuel Rodríguez, 20 Lucas Bianchi, 21 Juan Francisco Torres, 22 Felipe Etcheverry, 23 Alfonso Silva

COBRAS
1 Levy Marinho, 2 Endy Willian Pinheiro, 3 Joel Ramirez, 4 Lucio Anconetani, 5 Gabriel Paganini (capt.), 6 Cleber Dias, 7 Diver Ceballos, 8 André Arruda, 9 Felipe Gonçalves, 10 Lucas Spago, 11 Alain Altahona, 12 Robert Tenório, 13 Robson Morais, 14 Ariel Rodrigues, 15 Nicolás Cantarutti

Replacements: 16 Alexandre Alves, 17 Diego Vidal, 18 Bautista Vidal, 19 Ben Donald, 20 Donnacha Byrne, 21 Douglas Rauth, 22 Guilherme Coghetto, 23 Sergio Luna

MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Francisco González (UY)
Assistant Referees: Nicolás Cotic (AR); Claudio Cativelli (AR)
TMO: Francisco Pesce (UY)