Argentina XV Overwhelm Paraguay

The Argentina XV overwhelmed Paraguay this afternoon, winning 64-3 in Asunción. The match was an opening round fixture in the Sudamericano 6 Naciones A. The tournament has replaced the former South American A Championship.

In Asunción the Argentina XV scored 10 tries, doing so without conceding any. They were the better side throughout though Paraguay proved to be superior opposition to teams put out in the past by Los Yakarés.

The Argentina XV opened the scoring through Juan Cruz González. Playing out of position today at fullback, González provided good support work to score. Fly half Joaquín Díaz Bonilla failed to land the conversion.

Díaz Bonilla would kick seven conversions in the match, this for a 70% success rate. Before he lined up his second attempt Paraguay had opened their account. A drop goal from Sergio Alvarenga would be the only points of the match for Los Yakarés.

With tries to captain Tomás Cubelli, center Santiago Resino and debutant winger Facundo Cordero, the Argentina XV went into half time leading 31-3.

In years gone by the second half has seen Paraguay fading. Today, however, they were able to perform to a similar level for the duration of the match. Discipline did harm them though as two Paraguayan players were yellow cared, resulting in them playing with 13 men for several minutes.

Cubelli and Cordero each scored a second half try. Also crossing were hooker Axel Zapata, Francisco Liotta and José Luis González.

Paraguay have home advantage next weekend against Colombia. Los Tucanes make the trip south after having played host to the Uruguay XV today in Medellín. The Argentina XV will play host to Brazil next Saturday in Buenos Aires.

 

SCORING

PARAGUAY 3
Pens – S. Alvarenga 0/1
Drop goals – S. Alvarenga 1/1 (8’)
Yellow cards – J. Lezcano (61’), D. Argaña (64’), M. Martínez (80’)

ARGENTINA XV 64
Tries – J.C. González (1’), T. Cubelli 2 (12’, 43’), S. Resino 2 (24’, 33’), F. Cordero 2 (40’, 51’), A. Zapata (48’), F. Liotta (59’), J.L. González (80’)
Cons – J. Díaz Bonilla 7/10 (13’, 25’, 40’, 49’, 52’, 60’, 80’)
Yellow cards – J.L. González (66’)

 

TEAMS

PARAGUAY
1 Emilio Gorostiaga (16 Federico Cattaneo 62’-79’), 2 Juan Manuel Gavigán (17 César de Brix 48’), 3 Martín Sitjar (18 Matías Martínez HT), 4 José Lezcano (19 Mariano Garcete 73’), 5 Andrés Nasser (capt.), 6 Horacio Ocampos (20 Juan Gómez HT), 7 Gonzalo Alvarado, 8 Leonardo Glizt, 9 Gonzalo Bareiro (21 Gastón Navas 52’), 10 Sergio Alvarenga, 11 Renato Cardona, 12 Camilo Orrego (23 Rodrigo Da Rosa 62’), 13 Sebastián Urbieta (22 Carlos Bareiro 50’), 14 Diego Argaña, 15 Juan González

ARGENTINA XV
1 Nicolás Solveyra (17 Luciano Santángelo 62’), 2 Axel Zapata (16 José Luis González 50’), 3 Lucas Favre (18 Julián Martín 62’), 4 Nicolás Walker, 5 Nahuel Milán (20 Exequiel Alegre Chedid 50’), 6 Benjamín Macome, 7 Rodrigo Fernández Criado (19 Federico Parnás 62’), 8 Santiago Portillo (2 Axel Zapata 69’-76’), 9 Tomás Cubelli (capt.) (21 Juan Cruz Rodríguez 62’), 10 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, 11 Facundo Cordero, 12 Santiago Gilligan, 13 Santiago Resino (22 Facundo Ferrario 62’), 14 Manuel Bustinduy (23 Francisco Liotta 50’), 15 Juan Cruz González

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Frank Méndez (FERUCHI)