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Argentina wrote history on Sunday by defeating New Zealand at u20 level for the first-time. Los Pumitas were 25-17 winners over New Zealand in the u20 Rugby Championship match in South Africa. The match was a round two match in the tournament and featured a greatly improved performance from the South Americans compared to their first-up performance against the hosts.
World Rugby has been using u20 as the junior age grade level since 2008. Previously, World Rugby had both u19 and u21 age grade categories. World Rugby officially changed from U21 to U20 as the primary international age-grade competition in 2008.
Los Pumitas have been the u20 side since the change in 2008. Prior to that the team enabled u21 selections. This is important due to Argentina completing a 12-11 win over the New Zealand Colts in 1998.
The victory means Argentina have one win and one loss thus far, as do New Zealand. South Africa have two wins while Australia have two losses. Argentina face Australia in the final round of the u20 Rugby Championship on Saturday, May 09.
Los Pumitas outscore the Baby Blacks by four tries to three. Fly half Federico Serpa scored the opening try and landed a penalty for an 8-0 lead.
The Baby Blacks opened their scoring on 32 minutes. Inside center Haki Wiseman went over for what was a converted try. A prosperous Argentine attack came in response. It resulted in a penalty try to give the South Americans a 15-7 lead.
The Baby Blacks, though, had the final say of the opening half. A try to left winger JD Van Der Westhuizen meant the score was 15-12 in favor of Los Pumitas at the half-way stage of the contest.
The second-half got underway with Super Rugby Americas (SRA) player, Luciano Avaca converting his speed and finishing for Los Dogos into an important try for Los Pumitas. Avaca punished the Baby Blacks by intercepting and running half the length of the field to score.
Replacement Ramón Fernández Miranda scored next to put Los Pumitas in a very commanding position. His 71st minute try was converted, putting Los Pumitas 25-12 ahead. The Baby Blacks hit-back quickly with a try but it would be their final score.
 SCORING |
LOS PUMITAS (25)
TRY – F Serpa (16′); Penalty Try (36′); L Avaca (57′); R Fernández Miranda (71′)
CON – No Kick (36′)
PEN – F Serpa (25′)
BABY BLACKS (17)
TRY – H Wiseman (32′); JD Van Der Westhuizen (40′); F McLeod (74′)
CON – C Norrie (33′)
| LINE-UPS |
Los Pumitas
1 Fabrizio Cebron, 2 Manuel Cuneo Camargo, 3 Bautista Salinas, 4 Joaquín Pascuale, 5 Bautista Benavides, 6 Franco Marizza, 7 Jerónimo Sorondo, 8 Federico Torre, 9 Juan Preumayr, 10 Federico Serpa, 11 Luciano Avaca, 12 Benjamín Ordiz, 13 Pedro Coll, 14 Bautista Quiroga Miguens, 15 Simón Pfister
Replacements: 16 Nicolás Cambiasso, 17 Benjamín Farías Cerioni, 18 Germán Tello, 19 Agustín Ponzio, 20 Basilio Cañas, 21 Benjamín Ledesma Arocena, 22 Ramón Fernández, 23 Manuel Giannantonio
BABY BLACKS
1 Ethan Webber, 2 Josh Findlay, 3 Alex Hewitt, 4 Alex Arnold, 5 Jake Frost, 6 Logan Plait, 7 Kobe Brownlee, 8 Finn McLeod, 9 Charlie Sinton, 10 Mika Muliaina, 11 JD Van Der Westhuizen, 12 Haki Wiseman, 13 Ollie Guerin, 14 Jay Rehana, 15 Cohen Norrie
Replacements: 16 Luka Patumaka Makata, 17 Charlie Wallis, 18 Dane Johnston, 19 Johnny Falloon, 20 Micah Fale, 21 Boston Krone, 22 Angus Revell, 23 Logan Williams
| MATCH HIGHLIGHTS |
