A pulsating contest played out in Buenos Aires on Saturday. Professional teams from Argentina and Georgia faced-off with the home side holding firm in the final minutes to complete a 24-21 victory.
Los Pampas scored two tries, the first going to man-of-the-match Joaquín Lamas. The Los Pumas 7’s play-maker scored 19 points in the match. His try opened the scoring. Having been awarded a 5 meter penalty, he took a quick tap to catch Black Lion with their backs turned. He scored in the corner.
Black Lion scored the next three tries of the contest. The first saw a pushover try from a maul. Twenty minutes later came a sniping run and dive under the posts from fly half Luka Matkava. The third came in the second-half.
Before the Black Lion scored their final try, the match had been drawn level. Lamas landed three penalties to help his side fight back. Replacement scrum-half Rafael Iriarte then canceled out the final Georgian try to level the scores at 21-21 early in the final quarter.
The match was now on a knife’s-edge. Both teams were able to find ways up field; They ran well and kicked well too. The game-breaker came seven minutes from full-time. Lamas landed his 4th penalty of the match to put Los Pampas 24-21 ahead.
Black Lion had two penalties in the final minutes. From the second they kicked for the corner and set up a lineout to maul. It was shut-down by Los Pampas. A scrum was subsequently awarded only for a free-kick to be awarded in favor of Los Pampas. With it the final whistle was blown and the Buenos Aires side celebrated.
SCORING
PAMPAS (24)
Try – J Lamas (4′); R Iriarte (63′)
Con – J Lamas 1/2 (64′)
Pen – J Lamas 4/4 (34′, 41′, 46′, 73′)
BLACK LION (21)
Try – S Mamukashvili (16′); L Matkava (36′); T Kakhoidze (55′)
Con – L Matkava 2/2 (17′, 37′, 56′)
YC – M Gachechiladze
TEAMS
PAMPAS
1 Rodrigo Martínez, 2 Rodrigo Pérez Boulan, 3 Javier Corvalán, 4 Rodrigo Fernández Criado, 5 Federico Lavanini, 6 Eliseo Fourcade, 7 Manuel Bernstein, 8 Jerónimo Ureta, 9 Eliseo Morales, 10 Joaquín Lamas, 11 Tomás Pássaro, 12 Felipe de la Vega, 13 Juan Pablo Castro (capt.), 14 Iñaki Delguy, 15 Benjamín Elizalde
Replacements: 16 Martín Viller, 17 Matías Medrano, 18 Miguel Prince, 19 Franco Carrera, 20 Lorenzo Colidio, 21 Rafael Iriarte, 22 Juan Landó, 23 Lucio Auad, 24 Manuel Alfaro, 25 Nicolás D’Amorim.
BLACK LION
1 M Nariashvili, 2 S Mamukashvili, 3 N Pataraia, 4 G Kerdikoshvili, 5 N Cheischvili, 6 N Aptsiauri, 7 M Gachechiladze, 8 L Ivanishvili, 9 T Perannidze, 10 L Matkava, 11 O Lashkhi, 12 M Sharikadze (capt.), 13 D Tapladze, 14 M Modebadze, 15 L Khmaladze
Replacements: 16 T Zamtaradze, 17 D Abudshelishvili, 18 N Khatiashvili, 19 M Babuashvili, 20 S Mamamtavrishvili, 21 G Margalitadze, 22, T Kakhoidze, 23 G Babunashvili, 24 T Akubardia, 25 G Julukhadze