Argentina XV See Off Spain

The Argentina XV got their World Rugby Nations Cup campaign off to an ideal start, seeing off Spain 44-8 in Bucharest, Romania.

The match was vastly different either side of the interval. An impressive effort from the Spanish scrum caused a variety of headaches for the Argentina XV and kept the game scoreless until the final minutes of the opening half.

Scoring was eventually opened when impressive number 8 Santiago Portillo crossed. With the tournament being played under World Rugby’s experimental laws the try was worth six points. With it the South Americans were 6-0 up at half time.

The match opened up in the second half. Spain’s scrum was unable to dominate, with the Argentina XV instead getting the better of them. Central to the change was the injection of French-based props Lucas Martínez and Carlos Muzzio from the bench. Together with replacements hooker Axel Zapata the Argentina XV’s scrum turned the match on its head.

With a strong platform now in place tries resulted. Super Rugby players Felipe Ezcurra and Joaquín Paz both crossed for tries as did Juan Cappiello, Gabriel Ascárate and Joaquín Díaz Bonilla.

The Argentina XV will play again on Monday, taking on Emerging Italy who began their campaign this afternoon with a two point win over Uruguay.

ARGENTINA XV
Try: Portillo, Ezcurra, Ascárate, Cappiello, Paz, Díaz Bonilla
Conversion: Mercerat (4)

SPAIN
Try: Marrón
Conversion: Aubanell

ARGENTINA XV
1 Franco Brarda, 2 Santiago Iglesias Valdez, 3 Cristian Bartoloni, 4 Ignacio Larrague, 5 Pedro Ortega, 6 Lucas Maguire, 7 Lautaro Bavaro, 8 Santiago Portillo, 9 Felipe Ezcurra (capt.), 10 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, 11 Franco Cuaranta, 12 Gabriel Ascárate, 13 Juan Cappiello, 14 Sebastián Cancelliere, 15 Pedro Mercerat

Replacements: 16 Axel Zapata, 17 Lucas Martínez, 18 Carlos Muzzio, 19 Sacha Casañas, 20 Santiago Montagner, 21 Marcos Bollini, 22 Joaquín Paz, 23 Segundo Tuculet

SPAIN
1 Fernando López, 2 Juan Anaya, 3 Jesús Moreno Rodríguez, 4 Álvaro Núñez, 5 David Barrera, 6 Asier Usarraga, 7 Florian Muñoz Rivero, 8 Jaime Nava (capt.) 9 Facundo Munilla, 10 Jaime Mata, 11 Ignacio Contardi, 12 Thibaut Álvarez, 13 Silvio Casteglioni, 14 Julen Goia Iriberri, 15 Sergi Aubanell

Replacements: 16 Pablo Gutiérrez, 17 Daniel Marrón, 18 Michael Dallery, 19 Oier Goia Iriberri, 20 Alvaro Abril, 21 Rafael de Santiago, 22 Jordi Jorba, 23 Pablo Gill