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Argentina have completed their preparations for the 2023 Junior World Championship. Los Pumitas faced New Zealand in South Africa. The match was the final hit-out before Argentina face Italy on Saturday, June 24.
New Zealand were worthy winners over Argentina. Playing at a high pace, New Zealand completed a 59-21 victory. Argentina scored three tries in the match. All were scored by Super Rugby Americas players – Tomás Bartolini, Faustino Sánchez Valarolo and Valentino Minoyetti. Fellow SRA players Juan Baronio landed two conversions and Valentino Dicapua one.
Los Pumitas join host South Africa in addition to Italy and Georgia in their group. Argentina open against Italy on Saturday, June 24 in Paarl. Game two will be against Georgia on June 29 in Stellenbosch. The team’s third pool match will be against hosts South Africa in Cape Town.
Los Pumitas are captained by Eliseo Chiavassa. He led the team against New Zealand with a front-row of Matías Medrano, Tomás Bartolini and Renzo Zanella. Dogos flanker Elías Efraín locked the scrum alongside Alejandro Barrios while Eliseo Chiavassa was joined in the back-row by Aitor Bildosola and Benjamín Grondona.
The backs saw Nicolás Viola and Juan Baronio starting in the halves. Ignacio Lucero played left wing while experimentation saw Ernesto Giudice playing inside center. Faustino Sánchez Valarolo started at outside center with Mateo Soler on the right wing and Benjamín Elizalde at fullback. Soler and Elizalde were top performers in SRA 2023.
With the match being a warm-up teams were able to field long replacement lists. Los Dogos had Valentino Minoyetti, Juan Manuel Vivas, Francisco Palazzi, Tomás Rapetti, Marcos Camerlinckx, Mateo Lorenzo, Federico Rolotti, Felipe Bares, Facundo García Hamilton, Valentino Dicapua, Nicolás López González, Felipe Mallía, Valentín Soler Filloy and Tomás Di Biase.
