Los Pumas 7’s slumped to a 6th place finish in Germany. Day Two of the Oktoberfest 7’s saw Argentina losing to both Fiji and Germany. In between, Los Pumas 7’s recorded a victory over Ireland.
Fiji started well against Argentina. The Pacific Islanders raced out to a 10-0 lead thanks to tries from Amenoni Nasilasila and Anare Tevita.
Los Pumas 7’s hit-back in the second half. They got on the board through Gastón Arias, though his efforts were quickly cancelled out as Nasilasila underlined his fine match by scoring his second try. With time up out Argentina scored through Luciano González.
The Quarter Final loss against Fiji saw Argentina eliminated from Cup contention. It set up a Plate Semi Final against Ireland.
The star against the Irish was Luciano González. He scored a double while Felipe Del Mestre also crossed. With it Los Pumas 7’s held a 21-7 advantage at half time.
In the second half it was all Argentina. Tries to Renzo Barbier and captain Franco Sábato resulted in Los Pumas 7’s running out convincing 35-7 winners. It put them into a 5th Place Play-Off against Germany.
The Germans got into the match after upsetting France. It set-up a repeat of the match from Day One. Having defeated Germany, Argentina went in as favorites. Germany, though, put in an excellent performance to disappoint a far more experienced and known team.
Germany held off Los Pumas 7’s, winning 19-17. The home side scored tries through Daniel Koch, Bastian Himmer and Fabian Heimpel. All three remarkably did so before Argentina was able to get out of its own half in the match.
Late in the first half Los Pumas 7’s would score. Veteran Rodrigo Etchart crossed for the one and only try from the South Americans in the opening half. Etcher scored again in the second with Gastón Arias scoring the remaining try. With Germany having more accurate goal-kicking they held on to win.