Argentina cruise to win over Canada

The Argentina XV cruised to a 45-5 win over Canada ‘A’ to close out the second round of the Americas Pacific Challenge in Montevideo on Wednesday. A 26-0 halftime lead set the stage with the Argentines redeeming their poor first round performance against Samoa.

Canada had little say in the opening stanza, spending the vast majority of the half parked in their own end with only Argentine mistakes preventing further scores. Facundo Cordero scored the first two, the first gliding unmarked on a lineout move and the second capitalising on an overthrown lineout.

The second two went to Agustín Segura. Argentina worked an overlap on the right side for the first, with Gordon McRorie sent to the bin for a dangerous clearout in the build-up. The card wouldn’t matter but Segura got his double with a lovely inside line and step to score under the posts.

There was little difference in the second half. The scrum continues to plague Canada with a penalty try awarded to Argentina at the 57 minute mark. Cordero entered the line and spun a wide ball to Matias Osadczuk for another try just minutes later.

A try finally came to Canada when Phil Mack took a quick tap, and after two phases Theo Sauder wrestled his way over. The celebrations would be short lived as Argentina responded immediately through Gregorio del Prete, the scrumhalf taking an offload from Lucas Mensa for try number seven.

Argentina still have a chance to salvage second place against the USA pending the result of Sunday’s match between Uruguay and Samoa. Canada have only pride to play for with Tonga their opponents in the final round of the senior ‘A’ competition.

 

SCORING

ARGENTINA 45
Tries – F. Cordero 2 (8’, 21’), A. Segura 2 (24’, 39’), Penalty try (57’), M. Osadczuk (61’), G. del Prete (68’)
Cons – D. Miotti 3/4 (9’, 25’, 40’), J. Diaz Bonilla 1/2 (62’)

CANADA 5
Tries – T. Sauder (65’)
Cons – G. McRorie 0/1
Yellow cards – G. McRorie (24’)

 

TEAMS

ARGENTINA XV
1 Franco Brarda, 2 Axel Zapata, 3 Lucio Sordoni, 4 Jerónimo Ureta, 5 Lucas Paulos, 6 Francisco Gorrissen (capt.), 7 Santiago Grondona, 8 Nicolás Sbrocco, 9 Luca Magnasco, 10 Domingo Miotti, 11 Facundo Cordero, 12 Lucas Mensa, 13 Agustín Segura, 14 Leopoldo Herrera, 15 Santiago Carreras

Replacements: 16 Gaspar Baldunciel, 17 Nicolás Solveyra, 18 Lucas Favre, 19 Santiago Portillo, 20 Lautaro Bavaro, 21 Gregorio del Prete, 22 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, 23 Matías Osadczuk

CANADA ‘A’
1 Djustice Sears-Duru, 2 Eric Howard, 3 Ryan Kotlewski, 4 Mike Sheppard, 5 Conor Keys, 6 Kyle Baillie, 7 Travis Larsen, 8 Dustin Dobravsky, 9 Phil Mack (capt.), 10 Gordon McRorie, 11 Brock Staller, 12 Guiseppe du Toit, 13 Jordan Wilson-Ross, 14 Kainoa Lloyd, 15 Theo Sauder

Replacements: 16 Ray Barkwill, 17 Hubert Buydens, 18 Cole Keith, 19 Paul Ciulini, 20 Luke Campbell, 21 Patrick Parfrey, 22 Nick Blevins, 23 Clayton Meeres

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Joaquín Montes (URU)
Assistants: Derek Summers (USAR) & Martín Bangueses (URU)