Pumitas Fall to France by 1 Point

Los Pumitas fell to France this morning by 1 point. In a heart-breaking defeat, France made use of the final play of the game to complete a 26-25 win. It sets up a must-win match for Argentina against South Africa on Wednesday.

France opened the scoring, doing so through Romain Ntamack. The son of French legend Emile Ntamack, though, would not play much longer. He was forced off there field injured.

Argentina looked to respond through the boot of Santiago Carreras. Missed opportunities meant France would remain in front until Juan Baustita Daireaux intercepted. He latched on to a pass from Alex Arrate and stepped his way through would-be-defenders to score. With the conversion successful Argentina held a 7-3 half time lead.

Los Pumitas opened the second half strongly. Additional smart work from Juan Bautista Daireaux saw the South Americans scoring again. With the conversion on target Los Pumitas held a 14-3 advantage.

Controversy followed as an error from the TMO saw France unfairly awarded a try. Gabriel N’Gandebe scored despite having been a knock-on from the previous phase. It put France right back in the game with the Pumitas now leading by 4.

France followed it up by scoring again. Ugo Boniface’s try gave the Europeans the lead. Pumitas replaced Leonel Oviedo cancelled it out though goal kicking meant France was two poiints in the lead.

Replacement Tomás Albornoz restored Argentina’s lead. A penalty and a superb drop goal gave the South Americans the lead and they appeared to be heading towards victory. But with one minute left to play Agustín Medrano. This gave France an opportunity to strike and their made no mistake. Replacement Peato Mauvaka scored to see Los Pumitas fall to France by 1 point.

SCORERS
FRANCE
Try: Ngandebe, Boniface (2)
Conversion: Arrate
Penalty: Ntamack, Arrate (2)

ARGENTINA
Try: Daireaux (2), Oviedo
Conversion: Carreras, Daireaux
Penalty: Albornoz
Drop Goal: Albornoz

FRANCE
1 Hassane Kolingar, 2 Florian Dufour, 3 Zakaria El Fakir, 4 Florian Verhaeghe (Capt.), 5 Mickaël Capelli, 6 Alexandre Roumat, 7 Baptiste Pesenti, 8 Charlie Francoz, 9 Arthur Coville, 10 Romain Ntamack, 11 Gabriel N’gandebe, 12 Alex Arrate, 13 Théo Millet, 14 Lucas Tauzin, 15 Romain Buros

Replacements: 16 Ibrahim Diallo, 17 Pablo Uberti, 18 Ugo Boniface, 19 Peato Mauvaka, 20 Georges Henri Colombe, 21 Dylan Cretin, 22 Sélévasio Tolofua, 23 Baptiste Couilloud

ARGENTINA
1 Santiago Pulella, 2 Jose Luis González, 3 Alejandro Luna, 4 Franco Molina, 5 Marcos Kremer, 6 Bautista Stávile, 7 Agustín Medrano, 8 Santiago Ruiz, 9 Matías Sauze, 10 Juan Daireaux, 11 Luciano González, 12 Teo Castiglioni, 13 Félix Luna, 14 Tomás Malanos (Capt.), 15 Santiago Carreras

Replacements: 16 Leonel Oviedo, 17 Rodrigo Martínez, 18 Mayco Vivas, 19 Lucas Paulos, 20 Nicolás Walker, 21 Gonzalo García, 22 Tomás Albornoz, 23 Juan Pablo Castro