Pampas Conquer Peñarol in Montevideo to Book Home Semi Final

Los Pampas conquered Peñarol in Montevideo on Friday to book a home Semi Final. The nail-bitter had the teams locked at 20-20 at half-time and was decided late with Los Pampas winning 32-27. The 2024 runners-up will play host to the 2024 champions, Los Dogos in one Semi Final while Peñarol are to host the red-hot Selknam in the other.

• Los Pampas enjoyed a good start to the contest. Ignacio Inchauspe, who played out of position, landed a penalty on 2 minutes.
• It got better for the Argentines as Peñarol conceded a penalty try on 8 minutes and, the 90-time capped Uruguayan prop, Mateo Sanguinetti was yellow carded.
• Peñarol opened their account while down a man; Felipe Etcheverry slotted two penalties.
• Early in the second quarter, captain Manuel Diana scored Peñarol’s first try of the match.
• Hookers Joaquín Myszka and Ramiro Gurovich exchanged tries for a 20-20 scoreline late in the half.
• Flanker Lucas Bianchi finished off Peñarol’s best try, doing so on 54 minutes. He brushed-off future Leicester Tiger, Joaquín Moro. Peñarol were 27-20 ahead but did not score again.
• Los Pampas came back with two tries in the final eight minutes. Center Justo Piccardo powered past Felipe Etcheverry and Ignacio Inchauspe finished off a superb team try. It gave Los Pampas the victory.
• Both teams will play again next Friday. The Semi Finals will see Los Pampas playing host to Los Dogos in Buenos Aires and Peñarol hosting Selknam .

PENAROL (27)
TRY – M Diana (22′); J Myszka (36′); L Bianchi (54′)
CON – F Etcheverry (23′, 37′, 55′)
PEN – F Etcheverry (10′, 13′)
YC – M Sanguinetti (8′); A Perillo Albarracin (65′)

PAMPAS (32)
TRY – Penalty Try (8′); R Gurovich (26′); J Piccardo (72′); I Inchauspe (75′)
CON – No Kick (8′); I Inchauspe (27′, 76′)
PEN – I Inchauspe (2′)

PENAROL
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Joaquín Myszka, 3 Juan Francisco Aguirre, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Bautista Viero, 6 Lucas Bianchi, 7 Carlos Deus, 8 Manuel Diana (capt.), 9 Santiago Álvarez, 10 Felipe Etcheverry, 11 Ícaro Amarillo, 12 Alfonso Perillo Albarracín, 13 Felipe Arcos Pérez, 14 Bautista Basso, 15 Manuel Cardoso Pinto

Replacements: 16 Sebastián Pérez, 17 Mateo Perillo, 18 Bautista Vidal, 19 Federico de Los Santos, 20 Manuel Rosmarino, 21 Tomás Di Biase, 22 Andrés Vilaseca, 23 Joaquín Suárez

PAMPAS
1 Matías Medrano, 2 Ramiro Gurovich, 3 Tomás Rapetti, 4 Franco Carrera, 5 Federico Lavanini, 6 Manuel Bernstein (capt.), 7 Joaquín Moro, 8 Juan Cruz Pérez Rachel, 9 Mateo Albanese, 10 Ignacio Inchauspe, 11 Jerónimo Ulloa, 12 Justo Piccardo, 13 Bruno Heit, 14 Nahuel Clausen, 15 Jerónimo Solveyra

Replacements: 16 Ignacio Bottazzini, 17 Miguel Prince, 18 Bautista Bosch, 19 Juan Penoucos, 20 Nicolás D’Amorim, 21 Estanislao Renthel, 22 Juan Pablo Castro, 23 Francisco Quinn

Referee: Tomás Bertazza
Assistants: Tomás Ninci, Armen Abi
TMO: Francisco Pesce