Pampas end Peñarol’s unbeaten streak at La Catedral

Peñarol’s unbeaten streak in Super Rugby Americas 2023 is over. Los Pampas celebrated an important result. The Buenos Aires team defeated the Uruguayans 20-19 on Wednesday at La Catedral. The outcome means Los Dogos retain top spot of the standings with half of the season over.

Having won all of their prior five matches in Super Rugby Americas 2023 Peñarol were favorites to beat Los Pampas. In comparison, the Buenos Aires side entered the match with a 3-2 season record. Now they can look ahead and target a home semi final.

Early play in Buenos Aires favored Peñarol. Sharp play saw the Uruguayans breaking the line to charge up-field. Los Pampas held on and recovered. Solid work from the forwards culminated in flanker Nicolás D’Amorim touching down in the 9th minute.

Felipe Etcheverry was off-target his attempt to open Peñarol’s account. What followed was solid possession by the home side. A scoring opportunity opened up only for a handling error to let them down just meters short of again entering the try zone.

Scoring resumed near the close of the half. Peñarol put together a good series of raids with Carlos Deus coming away with a try. Etcheverry missed his conversion attempt. The miss was what separated the teams on the scoresheet at half-time.

Los Pampas began the second half with three points; Joaquín de la Vega Mendía slotted a penalty three minutes into the half. What followed was a period of Peñarol superiority. Tomás Inciarte continued his impressive form by touching down. His try came in combination with Etcheverry who subsequently landed the conversion.

Peñarol’s 12-10 lead soon became 19-10. Strong work from the forwards combined with a yellow card to replaced Pampas prop Matías Medrano resulted in seven points. Peñarol were rewarded a 54th minute penalty try.

Los Pampas needed something special. Their repsonse came in three pieces. First, de la Vega Mendía landed a penalty with thirteen minutes remaining. Second, Juan Andrés Zuccarino was yellow carded with nine minutes remaining. Third, the forwards showed excellent understanding of each other to pound away at the try zone.

Peñarol’s defense was tested in the final minutes. It successfully withstood a series of raids until the frame of Jerónimo Ureta got through. Ureta positioned himself to charge between Manuel Diana and Juan Manuel Alonso. He had the angle and the power to get the ball down over the line. de la Vega Mendía converted from in front of the posts for the win.

For both Los Pampas and Peñarol attention now turns to round 8. The Argentines make the trip to Colorado to face the American Raptors on Easter Sunday. Peñarol will play one day earlier in Paraguay. They face Yacare in Asunción.

 

SCORING

PAMPAS (20)
Try – N D’Amorim (9′); J Ureta (78′)
Con – J de la Vega Mendía 2/2 (10′, 78′)
Pen – J de la Vega Mendía 2/4 (43′, 67′)
YC – M Medrano (54′)

PENAROL (19)
Try – C Deus (38′); T Inciarte (46′); Penalty Try (54′)
Con – F Etcheverry 1/2 (47′)
Pen – F Etcheverry 0/1
YC – G Pujadas (7′); JA Zuccarino (71′)

 

TEAMS

PAMPAS
1 Rodrigo Martínez, 2 Ramiro Gurovich, 3 Javier Coronel, 4 Lorenzo Colidio, 5 Federico Lavanini, 6 Nicolás D’Amorim, 7 Jerónimo Ureta, 8 Santiago Ruiz (capt.), 9 Mateo Albanese, 10 Joaquín de la Vega Mendía, 11 Lucio Auad, 12 Manuel Alfaro, 13 Benjamín Elizalde, 14 Iñaki Delguy, 15 Juan Ignacio Landó

Replacements: 16 Valentino Minoyetti, 17 Matías Medrano, 18 Renzo Zanella, 19 Eliseo Fourcade, 20 Manuel Bernstein, 21 Rafael Iriarte, 22 Eliseo Chiavassa, 23 Joaquín Lamas

PENAROL
1 Matías Benítez, 2 Guillermo Pujadas, 3 Diego Arbelo, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Agustín Morales, 6 Carlos Deus, 7 Lucas Bianchi, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Santiago Álvarez, 10 Felipe Etcheverry (capt.), 11 Juan Manuel Alonso, 12 Guillermo Juan Storace, 13 Tomás Inciarte, 14 Gastón Mieres, 15 Rodrigo Silva

Replacements: 16 Emiliano Faccennini, 17 Mateo Perillo, 18 Ignacio Peculo, 19 Juan Manuel Rodríguez, 20 Manuel Rosmarino, 21 Juan Francisco Torres, 22 Icaro Amarillo, 23 Juan Andrés Zuccarino

MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Tomás Bertazza (AR)
Assistant Referees: Pablo Deluca (AR:); Juan Maio (AR)
TMO: Marcelo Pilara (AR)