Cobras feel the bite of Yacare in São Paulo

Os Cobras felt the bite of Yacare in São Paulo on Sunday. The Brazilian side dropped their third consecutive home match to be winless after three rounds of Super Rugby Americas 2023. Yacare won by a 20 point margin and were comfortably the better team on the day.

The Paraguayan side blasted forward early. Good use of the forwards saw Estefano Aranda opening the scoring. The tighthead used his size to get the five points. The conversion attempt was unsuccessful.

The remainder of the opening half was low scoring. It was not until the final minutes when further points were scored. Estanislao Gómez slotted a 34th minute penalty for an 8-0 lead. Os Cobras woes were compounded with Endy Willian Pinheiro receiving a yellow card.

Discipline has been a rudimentary problem for Josh Reeves’ team thus far in Super Rugby Americas. This time the ten minute loss of a player did not have consequences on the scoresheet; rather, Yacare were also down to 14-men with Sebastián Urbieta yellow carded shortly after the Cobras‘ hooker.

Os Cobras got good momentum following Urbieta’s yellow card. Solid play had them scoring to the left of the posts. Matheus Cláudio scored were Urbieta would have been standing. Lucas Tranquez landed the conversion to give Os Cobras an 8-5 lead.

Os Cobras went into the changing rooms with their heads up at the interval. However, it was Yacare that came out the better team. The sting again came up front. This time it was Emiliano Gorostiaga who scored early for Yacare.

The home side rebounded through Colombian winger Alain Altahona. With Estanislao Gómez missing two conversions and Lucas Tranquez landing two the homeside held a 14-14 advantage after 46 minutes.

The lead was temporary and would not be restored. Yacare hit back with a vengeance. Man of the Match Ramiro Amarilla powered through for the first of his two tries. Gómez landed the conversion. The try was half of the problem for Os Cobras as Irish flanker Donnacha Byrne was yellow carded.

Os Cobras needed to score next. They looked to shift the ball but were doing so without evident tactics. Yacare’s defense was able to mark easily and Federico Gauna intercepted a pass to al but seal the result.

The 27-14 lead lasted until the final minutes. Yacare extended with their final try. In what was the best of the match, and likely the rounds, Amarilla finished off a try in which Tomás Acosta Pimental broke through the mid-field channels.

The 34-14 final score gives Yacare a 1-1 record for the season. They now travel home to face the American Raptors next Sunday in Asunción. Os Cobras travel to Montevideo for their first away match of the season. They do so with a 0-3 record in Super Rugby Americas 2023.

 

SCORING

COBRAS (14)
Try – M Cláudio; A Altahona
Con – L Tranquez (2/2)
Pen – L Tranquez (0/1)
YC – E Willian Pinheiro; D Byrne

YACARE (34)
Try – E Aranda; E Gorostiaga; R Amarilla (2); F Gauna
Con – E Gómez (1/3); F Cacciabue (2/2)
YC – S Urbieta

 

TEAMS

COBRAS
1 Alexandre Alves, 2 Endy Willian Pinheiro, 3 Henrique Ferreira, 4 Ben Donald, 5 Gabriel Paganini (capt.), 6 Donnacha Byrne, 7 Matheus Cláudio, 8 André Arruda, 9 Facundo Villalba, 10 Lucas Tranquez, 11 Alain Altahona, 12 Robert Tenório, 13 Nicolás Cantarutti, 14 Ariel Rodrigues, 15 Guilherme Coghetto

Replacements: 16 Brendon Alves, 17 Diego Vidal, 18 Joel Ramirez, 19 Lucio Anconetani, 20 Cleber Dias, 21 Felipe Gonçalves, 22 Lucas Spago, 23 Robson Morais

 

YACARE
1 Lucas Noguera Paz, 2 Emilio Gorostiaga, 3 Estefano Aranda, 4 Ignacio Martínez, 5 Mariano Garcete, 6 Felipe Villagrán, 7 Felipe Puertas, 8 Marcos Riquelme, 9 Ignacio Inchauspe (capt.), 10 Estanislao Gómez, 11 Juan González, 12 Sebastián Urbieta, 13 Ramiro Amarilla, 14 Federico Gauna, 15 Tomás Mac Call

Replacements: 16 Julián Martín, 17 Camilo Blasco, 18 Rolando Portillo, 19 Carlos Plate, 20 Juan Cruz Pérez Rachel, 21 Diego Miño, 22 Tomás Acosta Pimentel, 23 Federico Cacciabue

 

MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Nehuén Jauri Rivero (AR)
Assistant Referees: Mauro Rossi (AR); Víctor Barboza (BR)
TMO: Lucas Galán (AR)