Try for los Pumas: Rodrigo Roncero
Argentine rugby took a significant step forwards on Saturday as a second-string Pumas side handed Italy a 37-22 drubbing in San Juan.
The tourists were expected to run out easy winners but Argentina - without most of their best players - put on an impressive display of depth to run four tries past the near full-strength Azzurri.
The result will come as massive boost to Argentine confidence ahead of their two-Test series against France starting next week and, perhaps more importantly, their debut in the Rugby Championship in August.
Argentina led 13-10 at the end of a largely uneventful first half but stepped up the tempo in the second period to leave the visiting Italians shell-shocked.
Veteran playmaker Felipe Contepomi finished the game with personal tally of 22 points - including a try - to send a reminder to coach Santiago Phelan that there is still life left in his old legs.
The only other Puma to start the game with more than 15 caps to his name, prop Rodrigo Roncero, also chipped in with a try in his last Test series.
A slow start to game saw Contepomi cancel out an early penalty from Italy pivot Kristopher Burton, but the 21st-minute sin-binning of Julio Farias-Cabello paved the way for the Azzurri to go 10-3 in front with a converted penalty try.
Los Pumas responded however with Tomas Leonardi crashing over to put the hosts ahead at the break.
Contepomi continued to be accurate with his boot as he added another penalty at the start of the second half, but Italy hit back with a try from Edoardo Gori after 53 minutes to close the deficit to three points.
The Pumas soon pulled away though, with Roncero, Leonardo Senatore and Contepomi all touching down.
Mauro Bergamasco grabbed a late consolation score for Italy, which Riccardo Bocchino converted, but it was too little too late.
Italy must now regroup before facing Canada next Saturday.
The scorers:
For Argentina:
Tries: Leonardi, Roncero, Senatore, Contepomi
Cons: Contepomi 4
Pens: Contepomi 3
For Italy:
Tries: Penalty try, Gori, Bergamasco
Cons: Burton, Bocchino
Pen: Burton
Yellow card: Farias-Cabello (Argentina - 20th min - cynical offside)
Argentina: 15 Joaquin Tuculet, 14 Belisario Agulla, 13 Gabriel Ascarate, 12 Felipe Contepomi (c), 11 Agustin Gosio, 10 Ignacio Mieres, 9 Martin Landajo, 8 Leonardo Senatore 7 Tomas Leonardi, 6 Genaro Fessia, 5 Julio Farias-Cabello, 4 Benjamín Macome, 3 Francisco Gomez-Kodela, 2 Eusebio Guinazu, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.
Replacements: 16 Bruno Postiglioni, 17 Nahuel Tetaz-Chaparro, 18 Santiago Guzmán, 19 Tomas De La Vega, 20 Tomas Cubelli, 21 Manuel Montero, 22 Roman Miralles
Italy: 15 Luke Mclean, 14 Giovanbattista Venditti, 13 Roberto Quartaroli, 12 Alberto Sgarbi, 11 Tommaso Benvenuti, 10 Kristopher Burton, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Robert Barbieri, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 Antonio Pavanello, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Carlo Festuccia, 1 Alberto de Marchi.
Replacements: 16 Davide Giazzon, 17 Lorenzo Romano, 18 Joshua Furno, 19 Simone Favaro, 20 Tito Tebaldi, 21 Riccardo Bocchino, 22 Giulio Toniolatti.
Venue: Estadio del Bicentenario, San Juan
Referee: Jerome Garces
Comments
melkdave says...
Didnt see the match unfortunatly ,but done some reading up on it .My looks like the Pumas are going to be a bit of a hanful in the Rugby Championship later this year.They certintally wont be scared of the Australiain or S.Africain packs in regards to physicallitiy or in the scrum .Infact they should monster the wallabies scrum imo lol.Doing very well at the JRWC as well and alot of promising players imo ready to step up into the 1st XV.Looking very good for Argentina overall imho
Posted 20:02 11th June 2012
Carpelone says...
Could not manage to see this match and all the others. It seems however that Italy get poorer and poorer and that the sacking of Mallet because he questioned some policies of FIR is backfiring.
At least, with him Italy was capable of being consistent for 80 minutes.
Posted 16:12 10th June 2012
sebabustos says...
Trackson, I think you will have to wait a long, long time before Argentina wins any matches at the Rugby Championship. However, there is the pressure for the Pumas to develop more players and to play a different kind of rugby, and this is already showing, so even without participating for the first time yet, the effects are already positive.
Posted 13:26 10th June 2012
trackson says...
Australia's side against Scotland wasn't quite a second side. As for Scotland, they were also missing a few players. And so what if the Scots had a terrible six nations. That shouldn't define them. They are still a better side than Italy.
Great for Argentina. Can't wait to see what they can do in the Rugby Championship.
Posted 11:49 10th June 2012
macte says...
Italy is getting weaker and weaker both at senior and junior level.
Dondi is a disgrace for the game. His politic for choosing players only if they are big, is keeping the team far behind the other nations.
Well done Argentina: you showed what a proper management of the junior players brings.
Posted 08:18 10th June 2012
Ramage says...
Interesting the second string Argentinian team defeated Italy yet the second string Oz team could not defeat the 6 Nations Wooden Spooners. Seems at this stage it is only Scotland of the 6 Nations sides to have a win. We will have to wait to see how they get on against Fiji and Samoa for a true indication of the Scots after all Samoa also defeated a second string OZ team last year and are currently ranked above Scotland before these current games.
Well done Argentina many were predicting a loss for you and so the first week is definitely a win for the SH teams.
Posted 05:49 10th June 2012
sebabustos says...
It was great to see a lot of attacking rugby by the Pumas; looks like they are trying to score more in preparation for the Rugby Championship (and that is what Graham Henry had suggested). Let's hope they can keep this way of plaing against tougher teams.
Posted 22:17 09th June 2012