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The Netherlands handed Chile the ultimate lesson of humility on Saturday. Playing at home in Amsterdam, the Netherlands overcame Los Cóndores 20-17. The test match began international competition between the Netherlands and Chile.
Chile looked like a team expecting to win and were caught out. The South Americans tried to beat the Netherlands with a dominant maul and scrum. Oranje were prepared and left Chile looking substandard and a shadow of the side that wiped Canada off the park seven days prior.
The temperature was not a factor though the weather was not ideal with a feature being rugby played with a slippery ball. Chilean backs and forwards both underperformed. The lineout disappointed as did controlling kick-off’s and defending against the high ball. The highly reliable Iñaki Ayarza was among the big name Chileans to have a poor match.
The match was the Netherlands’ one and only fixture of the 2024 November Internationals. It saw Oranje writing history by defeating a Rugby World Cup level opponent for the first time ever. Moreover, as noted, the win was against the same team that trounced Canada a week earlier. Canada are likely to be the Netherlands; primary rival for a place at Rugby World Cup 2027.
It will take a lot to get a worse performance out of Chile; indeed, this was certainly the low point of the Pablo Lemoine era.
Los Cóndores opened the scoring on 5 minutes. A promising raid inside the Netherlands’ 22 ended with Santiago Videla landing a penalty. The Netherlands hit-back with two penalties to claim a 6-3 lead. Vikas Meijer was on target in the 10th and 16th minutes. Meijer missed his next shot on 19 minutes.
Chile were off their game in the opening quarter but things did not improve. The reprehensible performance was rife with errors and poor decision making. The second quarter concluded with Ernesto Tchimino scoring from a push-over scrum try in the final play of the half.
The 10-6 half-time lead was insufficient. The Netherlands fought back to score two tries, doing so by punishing the South Americans for their errors. The Dutch did not play an expansive or enterprising game; instead, Daan Van Der Avoird’s first of two tries came after Iñaki Ayarza fumbled a high ball.
The first did not unlock the defense and nor did the second. With no player covering the short-side, Mees Voets and Van der Avoid combined for a simple two on one. Both tries were converted to put the Netherlands ten points ahead.
A stunned Chile had ten minutes to score twice. After winning a penalty, Chile went for a lineout and maul. Replacement hooker Diego Escobar crossed in the 74th minute. Santiago Videla converted from wide.
Chile still needed one more try and looked to get it. Following an attacking lineout with time up Chile went left. Phases followed before Juan Cruz Reyes gave away the ball by passing it to the opposition. Meijer kicked the ball out for a famous win.
| SCORING |
NETHERLANDS (20)
TRY (2) – D van der Avoird 2 (63′, 68′)
CON (2)- V Meijer (64′, 69′)
PEN (2) – V Meijer (10′, 16′)
YC – O Ruijgrok (57′); C van Leeuwen (73′)
CHILE (17)
TRY – E Tchimino (40′); D Escobar (73′)
CON – S Videla (40′, 74′)
PEN – S Videla (5′)
LINEUPS vs |
NETHERLANDS
1 Odin Ruijgrok, 2 Lars Linebank, 3 Gabor Besuijen, 4 Chris van Leeuwen, 5 Koen Bloemen (capt.), 6 Spike Salman, 7 Tim de Jong, 8 Chris Raymond, 9 Mark Cobergh, 10 Vikas Meijer, 11 Daan van der Avoird, 12 David Weerma, 13 William Edwards, 14 Te Campbell, 15 Peter Lydon
Replacements: 16 Tafadzwa Kahembe, 17 Shane Fikken, 18 Thymo Pieters, 19 Monty Leverstein, 20 Wolf van Dijk, 21 Boris Hadinegoro, 22 Mees Voets, 23 Mees van Oord
CHILE
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Augusto Böhme, 3 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 4 Santiago Pedrero, 5 Clemente Saavedra, 6 Martín Sigren (capt.), 7 Raimundo Martínez, 8 Ernesto Tchimino, 9 Benjamín Videla, 10 Rodrigo Fernández, 11 Nicolás Garafulic, 12 Santiago Videla, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Matías Garafulic, 15 Iñaki Ayarza
Replacements: 16 Diego Escobar, 17 Norman Aguayo, 18 Matías Dittus, 19 Bruno Sáez, 20 Santiago Edwards, 21 Marcelo Torrealba, 22 Juan Cruz Reyes, 23 Luca Strabucchi
| MATCH HIGHLIGHTS |
Video:
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| MATCH OFFICIALS |
Referee: Jeremy Rozier (France)
Assistant Referees: Evan Urruzmendi (France); Kévin Bralley (France)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (France)
