Peñarol Power Towards Play-Offs with old Win over Yacare

Peñarol got the job done in Asunción, Paraguay on Saturday. The Uruguayan side were 31-17 winners which crucially sees them returning home with four points while Yacare gained none. With two regular season rounds remaining, Peñarol are seemingly peaking at the ideal time.

Peñarol got the job done in the first-half. An excellent start had the team over for three tries without conceding any. Flanker Carlos Deus continued his superb form by scoring again. The 6th minute score was responded to by Joaquín Mussi who slotted a penalty. He was a late replacement for Joaquín Lamas.

Yacare failed to score again in the first-half. Peñarol hit-back with force. Pedro Hoblog took a quick tap from a penalty and got past and around five Yacare defenders en-route to the try zone.

Leonel Oviedo then replicated Julián Montoya against Tonga at Rugby World Cup 2015. From an attacking lineout a switch saw the hooker gaining an inside pass to score. It may be seen again just like Montoya repeated it against Tonga at Osaka in 2019.

The half-time score-line read 25-3. To their credit, Yacare responded in the second-half to score two tries to zero, the first of which was a penalty try. Peñarol’s second-half points were limited to two penalties from Ignacio Álvarez. It meant no bonus point for the Uruguayan team.

The match was the penultimate regular season fixture for Yacare. The Paraguayan side plays host to the American Raptors next weekend. This means a maximum total of 31 competition points. Peñarol have Los Pampas at home and Los Dogos away in the remaining rounds.

Peñarol can still miss out on a place in the play-off’s. This would require Selknam to overtake them in their remaining matches which are home fixtures against Los Dogos and the Americas Raptors. Whatever the outcome, the competitiveness for the play-off’s is fierce.

SCORING

YACARE (17)
Try (2) – Penalty Try (59′); J González (64′)
Con (2) – No Kick (59′); S Urbieta (65′)
Pen (1) – J Mussi (18′)
YC (1) – A Zapata (36′)

PENAROL (31)
Try (3) – C Deus (6′); P Hoblog (23′); L Oviedo (37′)
Con (2) – I Álvarez (7′, 24′)
Pen (4) – I Álvarez (10′, 33′, 53′, 55′)
YC (2) – L Bianchi (57′); H de la Mota (60′)

LINEUPS

YACARE
1 Ezequiel Reyes, 2 Axel Zapata, 3 Rolando Portillo, 4 Lucio Anconetani, 5 Mariano Garcete (capt.), 6 Juan Cruz Pérez Rachel, 7 Felipe Puertas, 8 Ariel Núñez, 9 Juan Cruz Strada, 10 Joaquín Mussi, 11 Juan González, 12 Sebastián Urbieta, 13 Ramiro Amarilla, 14 Arturo López, 15 Ramiro Moyano

Replacements: 16 Ignacio Palillo, 17 Camilo Blasco, 18 Estéfano Aranda, 19 Nicolás Parada Heit, 20 Mateo Rodríguez Vasquez, 21 Gonzalo Bareiro, 22 Tomás Vanni, 23 Juan Daniel Chilavert

PENAROL
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Leonel Oviedo, 3 Mathias Franco, 4 Manuel Rosmarino, 5 Felipe Aliaga, 6 Santiago Civetta (capt.), 7 Lucas Bianchi, 8 Carlos Deus, 9 Pedro Hoblog, 10 Ícaro Amarilla, 11 Dante Soto, 12 Juan Manuel Alonso, 13 Felipe Arcos Pérez, 14 Joaquín Súarez, 15 Ignacio Álvarez

Replacements: 16 Francisco García, 17 Mateo Perillo, 18 Horacio de la Mota, 19 Agustín Morales, 20 Joaquín Myszka, 21 Santiago Álvarez, 22 Santiago Terra, 23 Juan Bautista Hontou

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

OFFICIALS

Referee: Juan López (AR)
Assistants: Adrian Bogado (PY); Federico Longobardi (AR)
TMO: Victor Silveira (PY)