Australia Scrape Past Argentina in La Plata Rain

Argentina fell to Australia in the final play of the match on Saturday. Played in rainy La Plata, Australia were 20-19 winners. The Wallabies won with time up via a Ben Donaldson penalty. Referee James Doleman had penalized Mayco Vivas for jumping over a ruck. The decision appeared questionable as the Puma caught the ball in the air, but Doleman did not deem it to be in open play.

Rain was overwhelming throughout the match. It caused immediate adjustments for Argentina. Starting second-rower Pedro Rubiolo was injured in the first minute while replacement scrum-half Lautaro Bazán Vélez had been ruled out before kick-off with Gonzalo García slotting in.

The Wallabies were impressive early-on. Australia won a Pumas attacking lineout and then a scrum penalty. They kick long and attacked. Wave after wave of Wallabies runs were defended as Argentina forced Australia back. The 27 phrases of the Australian attack ended with a goal-line drop-out.

Having withstood the early pressure, it was Argentina’s turn to impress. Santiago Carreras opened the scoring with a penalty from a wide angle. His halves partner, Gonzalo Bertranou, then plucked a Australian pass and Los Pumas went deep into Australian territory. An attacking penalty saw a lineout to maul move with Juan Martín Gonzalez scoring. Carreras converted from wide for a 10-0 lead.

The Wallabies hit-back on 26 minutes. Rampaging forwards put in the hard yards before fullback Tom Wright make a half break and put Jake Gordon under the posts. Noah Lolesio made no mistake with the regulation conversion.

Argentina responded eight minutes later with a penalty to Santiago Carreras. Overall, it was a balanced contest in the first half. Los Pumas had the edge in in open play and the Wallabies were better at scrum and in the lineout. Nonetheless, Argentina were visibly less than happy with officials referee James Doleman and TMO Glenn Newman for not checking Carlo Tizzano’s potential knee to head contact on Santiago Carreras nor Marika Koroibete’s potential head-to-head contact on Marcos Kremer.

Los Pumas were unable to match the intensity of the first half in the second. However, the South Americans did have a promising start to the half. Having won their own kick-off, they put together phases before captain Julian Montoya knocked-on. Thomas Gallo won a scrum penalty from which Santiago Carreras retained his 100% goal-kicking rate in the match.

Australia hit back hard. Quick ball from the Wallabies opened space from which Rob Valetini ran through the middle like a tractor and scored. Noah Lolesio converted for a 16-14 scoreline after 50 minutes.

The injection of replacements saw Australia further eroding Argentina’s control of the match. Allan Alaalatoa complained to Doleman about Argentina’s lineout jumping against the throw and a penalty came. Noah Lolesi landed a penalty for a 17-16 lead. From there Argentina woke-up and went within inches of scoring. Thomas Gallo knocked-on while diving into the try zone.

Argentina did come away with points minutes later. Tomás Albornoz’s penalty goal proved to be insufficient; however, and notably came after Argentina had nearly scored from a five meter lineout to maul.

Leading 19-17 with 10 minutes left, Argentina needed to close out the contest. They looked to do so for the most part but not at all times. Albornoz looked to kick over the defensive line and regather only to miss the bounce narrowly. Australia counter-attacked in response before Argentina kicked out for a Wallabies lineout throw-in on the Pumas 22 meter line. A series of raids followed before Mayco Vivas was penalized and replacement Ben Donaldson kicked the winning points.

Prior to Donaldson kicking to penalty, referee James Doleman had informed Los Pumas that there would be a restart following the kick. However, this did not transpire as Doleman blew his whistle for full-time.

The teams meet again on Saturday, September 07. The rematch will be played in Santa Fé with France’s Pierre Brousset refereeing. Doleman will be an assistant referee and Marius Jonker will be the TMO. Australia will be looking for a repeat victory while Argentina will be in search of a method to finish off opportunities.

SCORING

ARGENTINA (19)
Try (1) – JM González (13′)
Con (1) – S Carreras 1/1 (14′)
Pen (4) – S Carreras 3/3 (10′, 34′, 44′); T Albornoz 1/1 (69′)

AUSTRALIA (20)
Try (2) – J Gordon (26′); R Valetini (48′)
Con (2) – N Lolesio 2/2 (27′, 49′)
Pen (3) – N Lolesio 2/2 (58′); B Donaldson 1/1 (80′)

LINE-UPS

ARGENTINA
1 Thomas Gallo, 2 Julián Montoya (capt.), 3 Joel Sclavi, 4 Franco Molina, 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 6 Pablo Matera (vice-capt.), 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Juan Martín González, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 10 Santiago Carreras, 11 Mateo Carreras, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 13 Lucio Cinti, 14 Santiago Cordero, 15 Juan Cruz Mallía (vice-capt.)

Replacements: 16 Agustín Creevy, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Eduardo Bello, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Tomás Lavanini, 21 Santiago Grondona, 22 Gonzalo García, 23 Tomás Albornoz

AUSTRALIA
1 Angus Bell, 2 Matt Faessler, 3 Taniela Tupou, 4 Nick Frost, 5 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 6 Rob Valetini, 7 Carlo Tizzano, 8 Harry Wilson (capt.), 9 Jake Gordon, 10 Noah Lolesio, 11 Marika Koroibete, 12 Hamish Stewart, 13 Len Ikitau, 14 Andrew Kellaway, 15 Tom Wright

Replacements: 16 Josh Nasser, 17 Isaac Kailea, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Jeremy Williams, 20 Langi Gleeson, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Ben Donaldson, 23 Max Jorgensen

MATCH VIDEO

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: James Doleman (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand); Pierre Brousset (France)
TMO: Glenn Newman (New Zealand)