Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Argentina made a solid start to the World Rugby Nations Cup in Romania by completing a 30-10 victory over Rugby World Cup 2015 opponents Namibia this afternoon. The fixture was the opening match of the World Rugby organized event which also includes Romania and Spain who are to play a test match today.
The South Americans started well with fast ball and controlled play laying the ground work for a resulting in a penalty try from a five metre scrum. Namibia, though, hit-back with a superb try to level the scores in the 24th minute. Fly halves Juan León Novillo and Theuns Kotzè subsequently added points before Aníbal Panceyra Garrido crossed for a try which gave the South Americans a 17-10 half time lead.
The competitiveness shown by Namibia in the opening half was absent in the second as the Argentina XV dictated proceedings and scored the only points. The team’s two tries came from the centres with Joaquín Paz and Juan Cappiello both crossingfor tries which started from deep within the Argentine half.
Argentina’s status as Argentina XV means that the players are not earning caps. The South Americans will play again on Wednesday against Spain and face Romania next weekend in the third and final round.
Scorers
Argentina XV
Tries: Penalty Try, Panceyra Garrido, Cappiello, Paz
Conversion: Novillo (2)
Penalty: Novillo (2)
Namibia
Try: van Wyk
Conversion: Kotze
Drop Goal: Kotze
Argentina XV
1 Roberto Tejerizo, 2 Facundo Bosch, 3 Guido Randisi, 4 Franco Baldoni, 5 Martín Chiappesoni, 6 Lucas Maguire, 7 Gonzalo Paulín, 8 Aníbal Panceyra Garrido, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou (Captain), 10 Juan León Novillo, 11 Augusto López, 12 Joaquín Paz, 13 Juan Cappiello, 14 Franco Cuaranta, 15 Tomás Carrió.
Namibia
1 Casper Viviers, 2 DG Wiese, 3 Johannes Coetzee, 4 Uanive Tjiuee, 5 Nico Esterhuyze, 6 Thinus du Plessis, 7 Janco Venter, 8 PJ van Lill, 9 Eugene Jantjies, 10 Theuns Kotzè, 11 David Philander, 12 JC Greyling, 13 Danie van Wyk, 14 Russel van Wyk, 15 Johan Tromp.
