Garafulic Guides Chile to Claim the Noteworthy Scalp of Spain

Chile completed a memorable victory over Spain on Saturday. In a round five battle of the World Rugby Nations Cup, Los Cóndores were 25-20 winners over Los Leones. It was a noteworthy scalp considering Spain entered the match ranked 16th and Chile 18th in the world.

The result sees Chile holding second spot in the Americas-Oceania Pool of the World Rugby Nations Cup behind the USA and Samoa. Los Leones are now third in the Europe-Africa-Asia pool behind Georgia and Portugal. Chile face Zimbabwe in their remaining match while Spain take on Samoa.

Played at the Estadio Ontime Butarque, Chile won the contest on merit.  Despite being outscored by two tries to one, the South Americans were the better team on the day. Pressure placed on the Europeans saw Chile coming away with as the better of the two at the contact areas with Matías Garafulic capitalizing.

The Chilean fullback had a match to remember. Garafulic scored 20 points for Los Cóndores. He kicked six penalties and converted Chile’s one try. The Chilean try was scored by impressive rookie Manuel Bustamante. It came in the 22nd minute and added to Chile’s strong start;

 

Chile scored all of the points in the opening quarter. Garafulic slotted three penalties. Bustamante’s try made it 16-0. It came after a long lineout throw from Diego Escobar. After two strong carriers, Rodrigo Fernández passed wide to the left with Bustamante going low to score.

Los Leones opened their account late in the first half. Captain Álvaro García Albo scored and Toulouse fly half Luciano Richardis added the conversion. It meant a 16-10 scoreline, in favor of Chile at the interval.

Luciano Richardis landed a penalty early in the second half for Spain. Matías Garafulic responded to cancel out the Spanish penalty but Spain were enjoying a solid period of play. A second score with a Toulouse name came as tight head Joel Merkler went over on 52 minutes. The score was now 19-17.

Neither team added additional tries. Los Cóndores did what they needed to complete the scalp. Garafulic kept his team in front with two penalties while Richardis slotted a late one to reduce the deficit from 8 to 5 points with just one minute remaining.

With the clock in the red, Rodrigo Fernández kicked the ball out as the Chileans jumped for joy in celebrating their country’s first win over Spain since 1999. Pablo Lemoine and his staff now look to Africa with Zimbabwe their opponent next weekend.

 

NOTES

• Chile defeated Spain for the first time in the 21st Century.
• Gauthier Maravat debuted for Spain.
• It was Chile’s first win in Europe since the 44–14 victory vs Canada in 2024 in Bucharest, Romania.

SCORING

SPAIN (20)
TRY – Á García Albo (36′), J Merkler (52′)
CON – L Richardis (37′, 53′)
PEN – L Richardis (42′, 79′)
YC – R Nieto (18′), T Bay (65′)

CHILE (25)
TRY – M Bustamante (22′)
CON – M Garafulic (23′)
PEN – M Garafulic 6 (6′, 10′, 19′, 49′, 56′, 64′)
YC – E Tchimino (65′)

 

LINE-UPS

SPAIN
1 Hugo Pirlet, Álvaro García Albo (capt.), 3 Joel Merkler, 4 Ignacio Piñeiro, 5 Antonio Suárez, 6 Gabri Vélez, 7 Matt Foulds, 8 Rapha Nieto, 9 Estanislao Bay, 10 Lucien Richardis, 11 Alberto Carmona, 12 Alvar Gimeno, 13 Iñaki Mateu, 14 Martiniano Cian, 15 John Wessel Bell

Replacements: 16 Diego González, Lucas Santamaría, 18 Jon Zabala, 19 Gauthier Maravat, 20 Vicente Boronat, 21 Manex Ariceta, 22 Nico Infer, 23 Alejandro Laforga

CHILE
1 Vittorio Lastra, 2 Diego Escobar, 3 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 4 Santiago Pedrero, 5 Javier Eissmann, 6 Ernesto Tchimino, 7 Raimundo Martínez, 8 Alfonso Escobar, 9 Benjamín Videla, 10 Rodrigo Fernández, 11 Nicolás Saab, 12 Iñaki Ayarza, 13 Santiago Videla (capt.), 14 Manuel Bustamante, 15 Matías Garafulic

Replacements: 16 Augusto Böhme, 17 Norman Aguayo, 18 Matías Dittus, 19 Bruno Sáez, 20 Clemente Saavedra, 21 Marcelo Torrealba, 22 Domingo Saavedra, 23 Marco Alvano

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

Video: To Follow

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Hollie Davidson (Scotland)
Assistant Referees: Matthew Carley (England), George Selwood (England)
Television Match Official: Dan Jones (England)