Argentina fall to Wales in underwhelming contest

Argentina were below their best against Wales on Saturday. In a match with neither team playing particularly well, the home side were 20-13 winners. The seven point difference can be attributed to a charge-down try to Tomos Williams.

Wales looked dangerous early on. Two breaks in the opening minutes had Wales deep in Argentine territory. Los Pumas held on to clear their lines and get into Welsh territory.

Now on attack, Argentina won a penalty which Emiliano Boffelli slotted to open the scoring in the 7th minute. The Rosario winger added a second in the 13th minute to give Argentina a 6-0 lead.

Argentina had a solid lead but it did not last. Wales were the next to score. Man of the match Toby Faletau went over to score from a rolling maul. Former New Zealand u20’s and Chiefs Super Rugby player, Gareth Anscombe converted to give Wales the lead. They would hold on to it for the remaining 44 minutes of the match.

Argentina looked like a team playing without urgency. Errors crept in from players that have been consistent all year. Gonzalo Bertranou, Santiago Carreras and Juan Cruz Mallía all had their weakest performances of 2022.

Wales were able to play out the match as the team on top. It was an underwhelming contest but one in which the better of two teams won. The next points serve as a case in point. Following an exchange of kicks, Mallía had his charged down by Tomos Williams who scored.

Welsh replacement Rhys Priestland added a penalty to make it 20-6. The lackluster Argentina somehow managed to make it a match that was not decided until the end. After so little having gone right, Argentina scored from a lineout maul move. The impressive serge culminated in replacement loose head Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro scoring his third test try.

Wales have two more test matches this month and Argentina one. Wales face Georgia on November 19 and Australia on November 26. Both sides were beaten in upset results this weekend. Australia fell to Italy and Georgia lost to Samoa. Argentina conclude their tour against Scotland on Saturday, November 19.

 

SCORING

 

WALES 20
Try – T Faletau, T Williams
Con – G Anscombe (2)
Pen – G Anscombe, R Priestland
YC – W Rowlands

ARGENTINA 13
Try – N Tetaz Chaparro
Con – E Boffelli
Pen – E Boffelli (2)

 

TEAMS

WALES
1 Gareth Thomas, 2 Ken Owens, 3 Dillon Lewis, 4 Will Rowlands, 5 Adam Beard, 6 Dan Lydiate, 7 Justin Tipuric (Capt.), 8 Taulupe Faletau, 9 Tomos Williams, 10 Gareth Anscombe, 11 Rio Dyer, 12 Nick Tompkins, 13 George North, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 15 Louis Rees-Zammit

Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Rhodri Jones, 18 Sam Wainwright, 19 Ben Carter, 20 Jac Morgan, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Rhys Priestland, 23 Owen Watkin

 

ARGENTINA
1 Thomas Gallo, 2 Agustín Creevy, 3 Francisco Gómez Kodela, 4 Matías Alemanno, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 6 Juan Martín González, 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Pablo Matera (capt.), 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 10 Santiago Carreras, 11 Emiliano Boffelli, 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente, 13 Matías Moroni, 14 Mateo Carreras, 15 Juan Cruz Mallía

Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 18 Eduardo Bello, 19 Lucas Paulos, 20 Facundo Isa, 21 Eliseo Morales, 22 Tomás Albornoz, 23 Matías Orlando

MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (NZ)
Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner (AU); Andrea Piardi (IT)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (ZA)