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The Chile XV were 54-26 winners over Paraguay in an Americas Rugby Championship (ARC) fixture on Wednesday. Played in Santiago del Chile, the Chileans added to their opening round win over the Uruguay XV to have two wins from two appearances thus far in the ARC.
The Chileans had momentum throughout the opening half and were 28-0 up at half-time as a result. The opening try came immediately with Christian Carlos López scoring in the opening minute. Before Paraguay could regather themselves they were two tries down as Joaquín Milesi scored his first of two tries in the match.
Milesi scored again two minutes before half-time while Marco Alvano also scored a first-half try and went over for another in the second-half. Paraguay did well to contain Chile during the seventeen minutes that separated Alvano’s first try and Milesi’s second.
Although Chile had the upper-hand throughout it was not all smooth-sailing for Chile as Paraguay had the better of the home side at the scrum. This was the one area in which Paraguay were competitive, though the reality is that Paraguay were in total control in this area.
Chilean captain Marcelo Torrealba replicated López’ start to the match by scoring a try early on in the second-half. Paraguay then responded with Juan González scoring before his opposite, Marco Alvano, went over for a second time for the home side.
Paraguay added a second try late in the third quarter with Facundo Paiva over. The Chile XV responded through front-rower Norman Aguayo in what was his first touch of the afternoon. Claudio Roa added another try before Paraguay ended on a high with Jordi Chávez and Joaquín Mussi scoring late tries.
Chile’s win set’s up a winner-takes-all against the Argentina XV to close out the ARC. Meanwhile, Paraguay will be in search of their first win in their match against the Uruguay XV. The final round will take place on Sunday, September 06.
| SCORING |
CHILE XV (54)
TRY – CC López (1′), J Milesi 2 (5′, 38′), M Alvano 2 (21′, 49′), M Torrealba (43′), N Aguayo (60′), C Roa (66′)
CON – T Salas 6 (1′, 6′, 22′, 39′, 50′, 61′), JC Reyes (67′)
YC – I Gurruchaga (33′)
RC – C Saavedra (52′)
PARAGUAY (26)
TRY – J González (46′), F Paiva (58′), J Chávez (73′), J Mussi (80′)
CON – J Mussi 3 (59′, 74′, 80′)
| TEAMS |
CHILE XV (54)
1 Max Kennedy, 2 Rafael Silva, 3 Baltazar Gurruchaga, 4 Santiago Valenzuela, 5 Maximiliano Schlesinger, 6 Clemente Armstrong, 7 Thomas Cooper, 8 Joaquín Milesi, 9 Marcelo Torrealba (capt.), 10 Juan Cruz Reyes, 11 Lukas Winkler, 12 Felipe Méndez, 13 Marco Alvano, 14 Christian Carlos López, 15 Tomás Salas
Replacements: 16 Salvador Lues, 17 Norman Aguayo, 18 Matías Dittus, 19 Santiago Pedrero, 20 Bruno Sáez, 21 Claudio Roa, 22 Santiago Videla, 23 Tomás Baguley
PARAGUAY
1 José Mazacotte, 2 Agustín Benítez, 3 Enrique Quinteros, 4 Carlos Martins, 5 Nahuel Kacerosky, 6 Francisco Bareiro, 7 Ariel Nuñez, 8 Leonardo Segovia, 9 Diego Miño, 10 Joaquín Mussi, 11 Juan Gonzalez, 12 Ramiro Amarilla (capt.), 13 Gianfranco Parodi, 14 Arturo López, 15 Facundo Paiva
Replacements: 16 Jordi Chávez, 17 Sebastián Ortiz, 18 Marcello Fretes, 19 Emanuel Cáceres, 20 Thiago Fernández Bedoya, 21 Sebastián Urbieta, 22 Patricio Cabrera, 23 Pedro Elías Sotelo Gomez
| MATCH HIGHLIGHTS |
| MATCH OFFICIAL |
Referee: Armen Abi-Saab (Uruguay)
