Dogos Force Their Way Past Cobras

Los Dogos are back in the lead of Super Rugby Americas 2024. The side from Córdoba, Argentina were 31-09 winners over Os Cobras on Sunday. The five tries to zero victory featured good scores from both backs and forwards.

The match was a game of two halves; the first was competitive while the second was one-sided. The scrum was a notable area of combat with north sides winning penalties, particularly in the second-half. A key difference between the teams was that the Argentine side was able to play their style of rugby for 80 minutes.

Lucas Tranquez opened the scoring with an early penalty. Os Cobras’ lead was temporary; Felipe Mallía hit-back for Los Dogos. The younger brother of Pumas fullback, Juan Cruz Mallía scored in the left corner. Julián Hernández converted for a 7-3 lead.

Tranquez added a second penalty to make it 7-6 after 22 minutes. Os Cobras were doing the bulk of the defending; yet, were just one point behind. Good defense had a lot to do with it; however, Los Dogos had multiple try-scoring opportunities ended with handling errors within range.

Part of the reason for the scrum war seeing penalties to both sides was that regular hooker Boris Wenger was playing loose head prop for Los Dogos. He more than made-up for any penalty against him as he scored from a pick-and-go. Hernández converted he 37th minute score for a 14-6 lead.

Tranquez landed his third, and final, penalty of the match to reduce the deficit to five points. The only other score of the third quarter followed with Mateo Soler getting around Felipe Gonçalves and Lucas Tranquez  for Los Dogos’ third try.

Two tries in the final quarter took Los Dogos to an unassailable lead. Agustín de Vertiz showed his skills in scoring from fullback while hooker Tomás Bartolini had the final say from close range. His try follows four last round against the Raptors.

The bonus point win has Los Dogos in good shape ahead of their trip to Asunción. Next up for the Córdoba side is Yacare on the road while Os Cobras travel to Chile to take-on the in-form Selknam.

SCORING

DOGOS (31)
Try (5) – F Mallía (8′), B Wenger (37′), M Soler (56′), A de Vertiz (65′), T Bartolini (74′)
Con (3) – J Hernández (10′, 38′), JB Baronio (66′)

COBRAS (9)
Pen (3) – L Tranquez (3′, 22′, 53′)
YC (2) – L Marinho (48′), C Dias (54′)

LINEUPS

DOGOS
1 Boris Wenger, 2 Tomás Bartolini, 3 Pedro Delgado, 4 Lautaro Simes, 5 Franco Molina (capt.), 6 Aitor Bilosola, 7 Lorenzo Colidio, 8 Valentin Cabral, 9 Agustín Moyano, 10 Julián Hernández, 11 Nahuel Romero, 12 Leonardo Gea Salim, 13 Felipe Mallía, 14 Mateo Soler, 15 Agustín de Vertiz

Replacements: 16 Santos Juárez, 17 Juan Aguirre, 18 Octavio Filippa, 19 Felipe Villagrán, 20 Facundo García Hamilton, 21 Nicolás Viola, 22 Juan Bautista Baronio, 23 Agustín Segura

COBRAS
1 Luciano Gabellieri, 2 Henrique Ferreira, 3 Francisco Moreno, 4 Ben Donald, 5 Gabriel Oliveira, 6 Franco Carrera, 7 Cleber Dias (capt.), 8 Adrio de Melo, 9 Felipe Gonçalves, 10 Lucas Tranquez, 11 Widson Nascimento, 12 Roberto Tenório, 13 Carlo Mignot, 14 Victor Souza, 15 Agustín Llano

Replacements: 16 Endy Willian Pinheiro, 17 Levy Marinho, 18 Nicolás Alkmin, 19 Gabriel Paganini, 20 André Arruda, 21 Rafael Texeira, 22 Daniel Lima 23 João Amaral

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

OFFICIALS

Referee: Juan Manuel Martinez (AR)
Assistants: Juan Lopez (AR); Nerea Livoni (AR)
TMO: Santiago Corvalán (AR)