Peñarol Punish Yacare in Montevideo

Peñarol punished Yacare in Montevideo on Friday, winning 50-15. The Uruguayan side led the match throughout and was never threatened. The manner of the win sends a warning to rivals: Peñarol are a team to be reckoned with in 2025. The win did not come without cons as a starting player now faces a long road to recovery.

• Peñarol outscored Yacare by eight tries to two.
• It was Yacare’s worst performance for a number of years. They were 21-3 down in the opening quarter.
• Yacare out played Peñarol in the scrum.
• Peñarol lost Juan Manuel Rodriguez in the 29th minute to a season ending injury. He ruptured his Achilles tendon. Without Rodríguez, RWC 2023 N8 Carlos Deus joined Felipe Aliaga in locking the scrum.
• Hooker Guillermo Pujadas scored a double for Peñarol. The first was a gift after Joaquín Lamas’ kick rebounded off Manuel Diana.
• As was the case against Los Dogos, the lineout to maul move proved to be a powerful weapon for Peñarol.
• Manuel Cardoso Pinto’s wrap-around try gave Peñarol the bonus point inside the first-half. The Portuguese wing / fullback is the only European player in Super Rugby Americas 2025.
• Pumitas scrum-half Tomás Di Biase scored his first try for Peñarol.
• Juan Manuel Alonso returned from injury to score a second-half try for Peñarol.
• Scrum-half Santiago Álvarez converted 4/4 while center Bautista Farise only converted 1/4 for Peñarol.
• Yacare fly half Joaquín Lamas is presently the league’s top point scorer with 27 points from 2 matches.
• The bonus point victory sees Peñarol top of the table with the maximum 10 competition points after two rounds.

PENAROL (50)
Try – G Pujadas 2 (7′, 13′); L Bianchi (18′); M Cardoso Pinto (34′); JM Alonso (61′); T Di Biase (61′); A Perilo Albarracín (71′); B Bottino (80′)
Con – S Álvarez 4/4 (8′, 14′, 19′, 35′); B Farise 1/4 (62′)

YACARE (15)
Try – J Lamas (55′); J Mussi (69′)
Con – J Lamas 1/2 (56′)
Pen – J Lamas 1/2 (16′)
YC – F Puertas (38′)

PENAROL
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Guillermo Pujadas, 3 Bautista Vidal, 4 Juan Manuel Rodríguez, 5 Felipe Aliaga, 6 Santiago Civetta, 7 Lucas Bianchi, 8 Manuel Diana (capt.), 9 Santiago Álvarez, 10 Felipe Etcheverry, 11 Ignacio Facciolo, 12 Bautista Farise, 13 Felipe Arcos Pérez, 14 Bautista Basso, 15 Manuel Cardoso Pinto

Replacements: 16 Joaquín Myszka, 17 Mateo Perillo, 18 Bautista Bottino, 19 Manuel Rosmarino, 20 Carlos Deus, 21 Tomás Di Biase, 22 Alfonso Perillo Albarracín, 23 Juan Manuel Alonso

YACARE
1 Cesar Pérez, 2 Axel Zapata, 3 Enzo Egea, 4 Lucas Sommer, 5 Mariano Garcete (capt.), 6 Felipe Puertas, 7 Ariel Núñez, 8 Santiago Ruiz, 9 Juan Cruz Strada, 10 Joaquín Lamas, 11 Juan González, 12 Sebastián Urbieta, 13 Francisco Diez, 14 Julián Quetglas, 15 Valentino Dicapua

Replacements: 16 Jordi Chavez, 17 Mariano Muntaner, 18 Enrique Quinteros, 19 Juan José Heisecke, 20 Nicolás Parada Heit, 21 Gonzalo Bareiro, 22 Joaquín Mussi, 23 Facundo Paiva

Referee: Tomás Bertazza (AR)
Assistants: Tomás Ninci (AR); Armen Abi-Saab (UY)
TMO: Francisco Pesce (UY)

FEBRUARY 28 VS(Buenos Aires, AR)

MARCH 01       VS(Asunción, PY)