Peñarol outclass Olímpia Lions in SLAR 2021 season opener

Peñarol outclassed Olímpia Lions in the opening match of the 2021 Súper Liga Americana de Rugby season on Tuesday. The Uruguayan franchise defeated their Paraguayan counterparts 40-11 at the Estadio de La Pintana in Santiago. The comprehensive win came after Olímpia started the strongest.

Juan González scored the season’s first try. The Paraguayan international fooled the defense to touch down in the second minute. It gave the Olímpia Lions a dream start. The try involved sharp work from scrum-half Ignacio Inchauspe. The conversion attempt was unsuccessful.

The Olímpia Lions remained in front for the duration of the opening quarter. Peñarol went ahead and then took control. Man of the Match Martín Roger will have impressed the Pumas coaching staff at the ground. The uncapped Argentine fly half had a solid afternoon from the kicking-tee and in general play. He gave Peñarol the lead by converting Conrado Roura’s try. The try saw Roura scoring following a rolling-maul.

The remaining first half points also went the way of Peñarol. Roger slotted two further penalties and Uruguayan test hooker Guillermo Pujadas scored on the stroke of half-time. Peñarol again utilized a rolling-maul to launch their try. Roger’s conversion made it a 23-11 scoreline.

Roger again found target after half time. He landed a 50th minute penalty. It put Peñarol more than two converted tries ahead of the Olímpia Lions. Then, with time running out, Peñarol scored twice to compete a bonus point win. Manuel Nogués scored the first and Santiago Álvarez the second. Roger’s accuracy continued as he finished with 20 points.

Both teams will play again on Saturday. Peñarol will take on Cobras Brasil XV while the Olímpia Lions face Selknam.

 

SCORING

PEÑAROL 40
Tries – C. Roura (20′), G. Pujadas (40′), M. Nogués (78′), S. Álvarez (80′)
Cons – M. Roger 4 (20′, 40′, 78′, 80′)
Pens – M. Roger 4 (15′, 25′, 35′, 50′)

OLÍMPIA LIONS 11
Tries – J. González (2′)
Pens – S. Urbieta 2 (23′, 31′)

 

TEAMS

PEÑAROL
1 Matías Benítez, 2 Guillermo Pujadas, 3 Facundo Pomponio, 4 Juanjuan Garese, 5 Felipe Aliaga, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Conrado Roura, 9 Manuel Nogués, 10 Martín Roger, 11 Nicolás Freitas, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt.), 13 Tomás Inciarte, 14 Federico Favaro, 15 Rodrigo Silva

Replacements: 16 Facundo Gattas, 17 Diego Arbelo, 18 Juan Echeverría, 19 Eric Dosantos, 20 Carlos Deus, 21 Santiago Álvarez, 22 Juan Manuel Alonso, 23 José Iruleguy

OLÍMPIA LIONS
1 Rodrigo Martínez, 2 Áxel Zapata (capt.), 3 Lucas Favre, 4 Mauro Rebussone, 5 Carlos Repetto, 6 Jeronimo Gómez Vara, 7 Lucas Santa Cruz, 8 Ignacio Gandini, 9 Ignacio Inchauspe, 10 Máximo Ledesma, 11 Juan González, 12 Sebastián Urbieta, 13 Francisco Dies, 14 Leopoldo Herrera, 15 Martín Bogado

Replacements: 16 Mariano Muntaner, 17 Javier Diaz, 18 Enrique Quinteros, 19 Mariano Garcete, 20 Marcos Riquelme, 21 Joaquín Pellandini, 22 Rodrigo Gómez Vara, 23 Renato Cardona

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Federico Anselmi (Argentina)