Impressive Tarucas Debut vs Cobras Lifts Standards of Super Rugby Americas

Los Tarucas put on a highly Impressive performance in their Super Rugby Americas debut. The newcomers completed a 45-6 win over Os Cobras in Tucumán. Signs after one match a highly positive; Los Naranjas have lifted the standards of rugby in the competition and play very different rugby to Los Pampas and Los Dogos.

• A crowd of 8,500 were in attendance.
• The debutants had a nervous start, conceding two penalties for basic discipline failures. Lucas Tranquez kicked Os Cobras to a 6-3 lead after 11 minutes.
• The debutants recovered and took control, sowing 45 unanswered points.
• Los Tarucas dominated the lineout and scrum. The lineout to maul was a powerful weapon as was the scrum. Indeed, the NOA team played to the historic strengths of Tucumán’s Los Naranjas.
• 2024 Pumitas hooker Juan Manuel Vivas completed the step up to seniors in style by scoring a hat-trick.
• Facundo García Hamilton scored two to match the double from Agustín Moyano for Los Dogos against Peñarol.
• The match was paused due to lightening danger and was unable to resume.
• The win places Los Tarucas top of the table after the opening round.

TARUCAS (45)
Try – F García Hamilton 2 (13′ 30′); JM Vivas 3 (22′, 39′, 49′); S Benítez Cruz (62′)
Con – N Roger 5 (14′, 23′, 32′, 40′, 50′, 63′)
Pen – N Roger (5′)

COBRAS (6)
Pen – L Tranquez 2 (3′, 11′)

TARUCAS
1 Julián Martín, 2 Juan Manuel Vivas, 3 Francisco Moreno, 4 Mariano Perondi, 5 Luciano Asevedo, 6 Facundo García Hamilton, 7 Facundo Cardozo, 8 Santiago Aguilar (capt.), 9 Simón Benítez Cruz, 10 Nicolás Roger, 11 Tomás Vanni, 12 Tomás Medina, 13 Bautista Estofán, 14 Baltazar García, 15 Stefano Ferro

Replacements: 16 Diego Fortuny, 17 Diego Correa, 18 Agustín Iglesias, 19 Álvaro García Iandolino, 20 Agustín Sarelli, 21 Estanislao Pregot, 22 Ignacio Cerrutti, 23 Nicolás Macome

COBRAS
1 Brendon Alves, 2 Endy Willian Pinheiro, 3 Javier Coronel, 4 Ben Donald, 5 Gabriel Oliveira, 6 Manuel Todaro, 7 Renato Santos, 8 Cleber Dias (capt.), 9 Lucas Spago, 10 Augusto Guillamondegui, 11 Andrei Santana, 12 Robert Tenório, 13 Lorenzo Massari Temer, 14 Daniel Lima, 15 Lucas Tranquez

Replacements: 16 Henrique Ferreira, 17 Aquiles Schluter, 18 Vicente Galvão, 19 Gabriel Paganini, 20 André Arruda, 21 Rodrigo Santos, 22 João Amaral, 23 Nicolas Azevedo

Referee: Damián Schneider (AR)
Assistants: Federico Longobardi (AR); Pedro López Bildosa (AR)
TMO: Marcos Miranda (BR)

FEBRUARY 21 VS (Jacareí, BR)

BYE