Argentina Find Form against Wales

Los were convincing winners at the Estadio Bicentenario in San Juan on Saturday. Argentina found good form to soundly defeat Wales in a round two match in the Nations Championship. The 35-21 win was by five tries to three with Joaquín Oviedo scoring twice for the hosts and all three Welsh tries combine from front-rowers.

After impressing against Fiji in round one, Wales entered the match full of confidence. This was very different to Los Pumas who were far short of their best in their opening round match of the Nations Championship against Scotland.

Felipe Contepomi’s team managed to sneak in a bonus point against Scotland in week one. In Week two they completed a bonus point victory and denied Wales any competition points.

The first-half was full of action. Wales took full advantage of an early penalty by scoring a push-over try from a maul. Captain Dewi Lake came away with the score on 3 minutes and Sam Costello converted from wide for the Dragons.

Argentina’s dual play-makers of Tomás Albornoz and Santiago Carreras were kept-at-bay by Scotland. This was not the case in San Juan. The opening try saw both men involved and the latter made a line-break before passing off the floor. Gonzalo García recycled smoothly and found a rampaging Joaquín Oviedo who scored  on 5 minutes.

Wingers Mateo Carreras and Bautista Delguy combined next. The former put up an up-and-under and the later jumped similar to superman to gather the ball in the air while in contact. Mateo Carreras provided support before Gonzalo García passed wide with Lucio Cinti combining with Justo Piccardo who scored.

Wales hit-back from a penalty tap nine minutes later. Loose Head Rhys Carre showed his abilities to barge over under the posts. With the conversion the match was back level at 14-14.

Los Pumas hit-back through Marcos Kremer who scored his 4th test try. The big man went low to dot the ball down on the line. It was followed by a different try as power from the forwards saw space open for Santiago Carreras to go over untouched.

 

Argentina were 28-14 up at half-time. Contepomi’s players continued to play similar rugby early on in the second half. Justo Piccardo broke down the left-hand side and passed in-field to Joaquín Oviedo who scored his second try.

Los Pumas had no shortage of additional try-scoring opportunities; however, they failed to score further points. On one occasion, replacement center Matías Moroni was denied a scoring opportunity.

At the other end of the field, Ben Warren scored the final try of the match. The replacement prop went over with 14 minutes remaining for Wales.

Los Pumas now travel to the northern Argentine city of Santiago del Estero to prepare for next Saturday’s home Nations Championship match against England. The Welsh travel to South Africa via São Paulo to face there mighty Springboks in Durban. Both matches will take place on Saturday, July 18.

 

MATCH NOTES

• It was the second match between Argentina and Wales in San Juan. Wales won 23-10 in 2018.
• Props Boris Wenger (24) and Tomás Rapetti (21) started for Argentina for the first time.
• Kanee James made his test debut for Wales as a replacement.
• Guido Petti became the sixth Puma to reach 100 test caps.
• Ryan Elias reached 50 caps for Wales.

 

SCORING

ARGENTINA (35)
TRY – J Oviedo 2 (5′, 47′), J Piccardo (14′), M Kremer (34′), S Carreras (38′)
CON – T Albornoz  5 (6′, 15′, 35′, 39′, 48′)

WALES (21)
TRY – D Lake (3′), R Carre (23′), B Warren (66′)
CON – S Costelow 3 (4′, 23′, 67′)

LINE-UPS

ARGENTINA
1 Boris Wenger (Harlequins), 2 Julián Montoya (Pau), 3 Tomás Rapetti (Toulouse), 4 Guido Petti (Harlequins), 5 Matías Alemanno (Vannes), 6 Santiago Grondona (Pau), 7 Marcos Kremer (Clermont), 8 Joaquín Oviedo (Perpignan), 9 Gonzalo García (Pau), 10 Tomás Albornoz (Toulon), 11 Mateo Carreras (Bayonne), 12 Justo Piccardo (Montpellier), 13 Lucio Cinti (Saracens), 14 Bautista Delguy (Clermont), 15 Santiago Carreras (Bath)

Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz (Perpignan), 17 Mayco Vivas (Oyonnax), 18 Francisco Coria Marchetti (Brive), 19 Franco Molina (Newcastle Red Bulls), 20 Pablo Matera (Mie Honda Heat), 21 Simón Benítez Cruz (Newcastle Red Bulls), 22 Matías Moroni (Bristol Bears), 23 Ignacio Mendy (Benetton)

WALES
1 Rhys Carre (Saracens), 2 Dewi Lake (Gloucester), 3 Dillon Lewis (Dragons), 4 Ben Carter (Dragons), 5 Adam Beard (Montpellier), 6 James Botham (Cardiff), 7 Jac Morgan (Gloucester), 8 Aaron Wainwright (Leicester Tigers), 9 Tomos Williams (Saracens), 10 Sam Costelow (Scarlets), 11 Josh Adams (Cardiff), 12 Joe Hawkins (Scarlets), 13 Eddie James (Scarlets), 14 Ellis Mee (Scarlets), 15 Blair Murray (Scarlets)

Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias (Scarlets), 17 Nicky Smith (Sale Sharks), 18 Ben Warren (Ospreys), 19 Teddy Williams (Cardiff), 20 Kane James (Exeter Chiefs), 21 Kieran Hardy (Ospreys), 22 Max Llewellyn (Gloucester), 23 Louis Rees-Zammit (Bristol Bears)

 

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)
TMO: Tual Trainini (France)
Split Screen/FPRO: Brett Cronan (Australia)