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Os Cobras were unable to withstand Peñarol’s punch on Saturday. Played just outside São Paulo, Penãrol were comfortable 38-15 winners over the Brazilian Super Rugby Americas side.
Peñarol scored an opening minute try and held the lead throughout. The early afternoon kick-off at the Estádio Nogueirão was briskly followed by Juan Manuel Rodríguez scoring. It was all too easy as the second-rower got a assistant and sliced into a massive gap.
Felipe Etcheverry missed the conversion. His opposite, Lucas Spago, responded for Os Cobras. Spago’s 5th minute penalty made it 5-3 in favor of the Uruguayans. Three minutes later Etcheverry missed his second conversion attempt. It came from hooker Emiliano Faccennini’s smooth try.
Peñarol closed out the opening quarter with a third try. In a try featuring plenty of flair, the ball exchanged hands before Santiago Álvarez was in the clear to score under the posts. Etcheverry made it 19-3.
Os Cobras needed a boost. It came in the 28th minute. Following ill discipline from Juan Manuel Alonso, referee Frank Mendez sent the Uruguayan’s back a further 10 meters from a penalty. It gave the Brazilian side a good attacking spot. Following raids Donnacha Byrne touched down in the try zone.
Peñarol hit-back to finish off the half with a bang. Robert Tenório gave up the chase on Gastón Mieres. The veteran of Rugby World Cups 2015 and 2019 scored one minute before the half-time whistle. Peñarol had the bonus point and were on course for victory.
Flair continued in the second-half. There were more unforced errors though. Peñarol were also guilty of not committing enough men at the breakdown. The result was Os Cobras successfully winning turnovers when the Uruguayan’s were hot on attack.
Peñarol scored two second half tries while Os Cobras scored one. Rodrigo Silva went over in the left corner early on in the half while captain Manuel Ardao scored from a rolling maul off of a five meter attacking linnet won by Eric Dosantos. Felipe Gonçalves scored the final try of the match.
Os Cobras have a bye next weekend. Their final round match will be the battle to avoid the wooden spoon. Os Cobras host the American Raptors on May 27 in São Paulo. The Semi Final bound Peñarol have two tough regular matches remaining. They face Los Pampas and Selknam in Buenos Aires and Montevideo over the coming two weekends.
SCORING
COBRAS (15)
Try – D Byrne (28′); F Gonçalves (76′)
Con – L Spago 1/2 (29′)
Pen – L Spago 1/1 (5′)
PENAROL (38)
Try – JM Rodríguez (1′); E Faccennini (8′); S Álvarez (19′); G Mieres (40′); R Silva (51′); M Ardao (65′)
Con – F Etcheverry 3/5 (19′, 40′, 52′); JA Zuccarino 1/1 (66′)
YC – S Álvarez (68′)
TEAMS
COBRAS
1 Levy Marinho, 2 Endy Willian Pinheiro, 3 Bautista Vidal, 4 Gabriel Paganini (capt.), 5 Gabriel Oliveira, 6 Adrio de Melo, 7 Matheus Cláudio, 8 Donnacha Byrne, 9 Douglas Rauth, 10 Lucas Spago, 11 Alain Altahona, 12 Victor Silva, 13 Robert Tenório, 14 Robson Morais, 15 Daniel Lima
Replacements: 16 Leonardo Silva, 17 João Lucas Marino, 18 Henrique Ferreira, 19 Ben Donald, 20 Pedro Aparecido, 21 Felipe Gonçalves, 22 Facundo Villalba, 23 Ariel Rodrigues
PENAROL
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Emiliano Faccennini, 3 Mathias Franco, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Juan Manuel Rodríguez, 6 Manuel Ardao (capt.), 7 Carlos Deus, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Santiago Álvarez, 10 Felipe Etcheverry, 11 Juan Manuel Alonso, 12 Juan Andrés Zuccarino, 13 Tomás Inciarte, 14 Gastón Mieres, 15 Rodrigo Silva
Replacements: 16 Guillermo Pujadas, 17 Matías Benítez, 18 Ignacio Peculo, 19 Eric Dosantos, 20 Agustín Morales, 21 Juan Francisco Torres, 22 Alfonso Silva, 23 Guillermo Juan Storace
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Frank Méndez (CL)
Assistant Referees: Guilherme Zaparoli (BR); Raimundo Fuenzalida (CL)
TMO: Victor Hugo Barboza (BR)
