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Los Pampas conquered Los Tarucas in Tucumán on Friday evening. Hours after Peñarol were too good for Os Cobras, Los Pampas humbled Los Tarucas with former Puma Santiago Cordero scoring a first-half double. A late flurry not only meant Los Pampas were definitive winners but that they won by an impressive 43-22 scoreline.
There were pas Rugby World Cup Pumas on both teams. In addition to Santiago Cordero, who played in the RWC 2015 Semi Final, Matías Orlando played for Los Tarucas. 2025 rookie Puma Santiago Pernas also played while others, as displayed below, were in attendance.
Los Pampas held a 26-10 lead at half-time. It came with the try-scoring bonus point already secured. Such was the rugby played in the opening half that there was reason to say it was the best 40 minutes of the SRA season so far.
The game started with a bang. Winger Mateo Pasquini scored in just the 3rd minute for Los Tarucas. Fly half Ignacio Cerruti landed the conversion only for his opposite, Bautista Farisé to score a converted try on 7 minutes.
The action continued to flow with Santiago Cordero scoring back-to-back tries and Cerutti landing a penalty for the home side. Cordero had scrum-half and captain, Lucas Marguery to thank for his first try. Then on 30 minutes, former Los Pumas 7’s player, Agustín Fraga bust tackles to score the bonus point try for Los Pampas.
The second-half was also very lively. It started with Marguery receiving his marching orders. A yellow card meant Los Pampas adjusted by moving Santiago Cordero to scrum-half. Los Tarucas had the better of play against 14-men, however, and Facundo Cardozo came away with a try.
A Farisé penalty followed before the match came back to life. With the clock entering the final ten minutes, Pasquini crossed for his second try of the evening. Replacement Maximo Ledesma converted to make it a 29-22 ball game.
There was time left for two more tries but neither of them were Tucumán tries. Los Pampas secured victory and denied their hosts a losing bonus point and also a try-scoring bonus point. Farisé finished with a second try and a personal haul of 23 points for the night. His final points came by converting Santiago Pernas’ try with time up.
 SCORING |
TARUCAS (22)
TRY – M Pasquini 2 (3′, 73′); F Cardozo (54′)
CON – I Cerruti (3′); M Ledesma (74′)
PEN – I Cerruti (55′)
PAMPAS (43)
TRY – B Farisé 2 (7′, 76′); S Cordero 2 (10′, 20′); A Fraga (30′); S Pernas (80′)
CON – B Farisé 5 (7′, 21′, 30′, 77′, 80′)
PEN – B Farisé (63′)
YC – L Marguery (50′)
| LINE-UPS |
TARUCAS
1 Benjamín Garrido, 2 Juan Vivas, 3 Rodrigo Navarro, 4 Ignacio Marquieguez, 5 Luciano Asevedo, 6 Facundo Cardozo, 7 Agustín Sarelli, 8 Thiago Sbrocco, 9 Estanislao Pregot, 10 Ignacio Cerruti, 11 Tomás Elizalde, 12 Bautista Estofan, 13 Matías Orlando (capt.), 14 Mateo Pasquini, 15 Nicolás Macome
Replacements: 16 Raul Guraib, 17 Mariano Muntaner, 18 Francisco Moreno, 19 Joaquín Aguilar, 20 Tomás Dande, 21 Matías Sauze, 22 Maximo Ledesma, 23 Pedro Coll
PAMPAS
1 Matías Medrano, 2 Ignacio Bottazzini, 3 Marcos Camerlinckx, 4 Rodrigo Fernández Criado, 5 Francisco Sluga, 6 Juan Penoucos, 7 Faustino Santarelli, 8 Juan Pedro Bernasconi, 9 Lucas Marguery (capt.), 10 Bautista Farisé, 11 Santiago Cordero, 12 Juan Cruz Corso, 13 Agustín Fraga, 14 Santiago Pernas, 15 Estanislao Renthel
Replacements: 16 Francisco Lusaerreta, 17 Nahuel Zunini, 18 Valentín Vicente Vidal, 19 Marcelo Toledo, 20 Lucas Moresco, 21 Alejo Lavayén, 22 Felipe Ledesma, 23 Jerónimo Ulloa
| MATCH HIGHLIGHTS |
| WEEK FOUR – MATCH OFFICIALS |
VS
Referee: Pablo Deluca (Argentina)
Assistant Referees: Nicolás Cotic (Argentina); Agustín Altabe (Argentina)
