Young Pumas hunt down Young Wallabies
Roar Guru By Alan Nicolea, 9 Jun 2012 Alan Nicolea is a Roar Guru & Live Blogger
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- Pumas, Rugby Union, wallabies, Young Wallabies
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While the Wallabies lick their wounds after their surprise loss to Scotland midweek, Argentine rugby continues to go from strength to strength thanks largely to the performances of the young Pumas at the IRB Junior World Championship in South Africa.
After upsetting France in their opening game of the championships, Argentina has managed to defeat Australia for the first time in its history at junior level.
The Pumitas managed to keep Australia tryless en route to a 15-3 victory that increases their chances of making the semi-finals of the IRB Junior World Championships.
A late try scored by Pablo Matera allowed Argentina to secure the win against an Australian side that severely struggled to penetrate a Pumitas defence that is yet to concede a try at the tournament.
Argentina once again dominated at scrum time, and it was here were the Pumas managed to seal the win against the young Wallabies.
74 minutes into the second half, the Pumitas produced a dominant scrum before Rodolfo Ambrosio put in a fine kick in behind the Wallabies defence that was eventually grounded by Matera.
Argentina will now play Scotland in their final game in group C and should be favoured to progress to the semi-final stage for the first time in their history.
The Pumitas performances in South Africa speaks dividends of the progress Argentine rugby continues to make throughout all levels of the game.
As the Pumas prepare to participate in The Rugby Championship, senior coach Santiago Phelan will be mightily pleased to know that he already has some fine young talent to call upon should the need arise.
Pumitas fullback Santiago Cordero is a young player to keep an eye on. Cordero wrecked havoc against the French in the opening match, setting up a try for Juan Capiello after making a wonderful break from inside his own half.
Argentina’s depth in the forwards also continues to look strong, with Matera, Ramon Gonzalez and Mariano Sanchez all performing strongly against Australia in tough conditions.
While it remains to be seen if Argentina can win their first Junior World Championship, the Pumitas have already left a fine impression thus far in the tournament and have once again proved that they can match the best young talent international rugby has to offer.
Pumitas coach Bernardo Urdaneta had this to say about Argentina’s performances thus far.
“Nothing has changed after the win against France,” insisted Urdaneta. “We came to win not to participate, to be competitive and we are. We want to have a team that not only is capable of winning but also of performing well and playing a good form of rugby.
“We want to demonstrate that Argentina is a good team, with great talent and a big heart.”
Not to mention a team with a very promising future.
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June 9th 2012 @ 1:52pm
p.Tah said | June 9th 2012 @ 1:52pm | Report comment
This was an incredible result. It highlights that the gap is closing amongst the top nations. Ireland beat South Africa and Wales completed the biggets upset in junior World Cup history by beating New Zealand. I believe that is NZ’s first ever loss.
June 9th 2012 @ 1:59pm
bluerose said | June 9th 2012 @ 1:59pm | Report comment
Graham Henry is there hidden secret, he’s gonna turn Argentina into a world beating team in the coming years if they the Argentinian Rugby Union back him up 100%.
June 9th 2012 @ 4:52pm
KiwiDave said | June 9th 2012 @ 4:52pm | Report comment
They will do that. Dont worry about that.
June 10th 2012 @ 6:53am
Fred said | June 10th 2012 @ 6:53am | Report comment
Dear bluerose, there is no hidden secret behind the Pumitas achievement… and I doubt that Graham Henry has contributed in anything to this. Mainly because he only works with the first national team, and second, because he only started working with the Pumas a short time ago. However, I do not doubt his contribution is going to be significant in the years to come.
June 10th 2012 @ 10:47pm
Sircoolalot said | June 10th 2012 @ 10:47pm | Report comment
The NZRU would never allow that.
June 9th 2012 @ 2:03pm
stillmissit said | June 9th 2012 @ 2:03pm | Report comment
Very interesting but what does this loss mean to Australia?
I stayed up to watch it and it was more pain than the loss to Scotland by the big boys on Tues. This looks like a strong team killed by very poor wet weather play, same as Tuesday.
What was very annoying was the see the same issues the Wallabies have on show. Soft binding in the front row – compare that to the Argentinians wrapping arms around one another and gripping below the armpits to ensure a tight front row, our hooker just hung onto the shoulders of his props and got bent and split every time in the second half.
Passing we were still throwing 15-20m passes the Argentinians threw theirs 4-5ms.
Breakdown one off drives into the opposition with the support arriving half a second later when Argentina already had 3 guys all over it.
Same old crap just a younger bunch doing it. Doesn’t offer much hope for the future. The great hope for the Wallabies Chris Sutia was unseen and might as well not have been on the park. Liam Gill, Cusack and the halfback fought well but the 5/8 Goodwin can’t kick, a major drawback in wet weather.
No hair left!
June 9th 2012 @ 6:30pm
Colin N said | June 9th 2012 @ 6:30pm | Report comment
“I stayed up to watch it and it was more pain than the loss to Scotland by the big boys on Tues. This looks like a strong team killed by very poor wet weather play, same as Tuesday.”
Come on, you’ve got to be able to adapt. England had the same issues against Ireland with the Irish completely controlling the first period and opening up a 15-3 lead.
But England changed the emphasis, played a tighter game and overturned the deficit. Are you saying that the Aussie juniors can’t adapt?
June 10th 2012 @ 10:29am
sledgeandhammer said | June 10th 2012 @ 10:29am | Report comment
Did you read his post? That’s exactly what he said and hence the ‘no hair left’ comment.
June 9th 2012 @ 2:04pm
Emric said | June 9th 2012 @ 2:04pm | Report comment
Last years world cup proved the gap is closing.
Long may it continue
June 9th 2012 @ 3:43pm
alan said | June 9th 2012 @ 3:43pm | Report comment
Bluerose – Yes Henry is a massive bonus but he won’t be with them for long. Still any time with the World Cup winning coach will do wonders for the Pumas. Looking forward to how well they fare against Italy and France over the next few weeks. Exciting times ahead for Argentine rugby.
June 10th 2012 @ 8:39am
Bakkies said | June 10th 2012 @ 8:39am | Report comment
Jury is still out on Phelan as head coach of the Pumas. Roncero is retiring. They will probably lose Contepomi and Hernandez soon.
Like the look of Bustos Monyata (spelling?) from Montpellier very exciting prospect.
June 9th 2012 @ 3:50pm
Tigranes said | June 9th 2012 @ 3:50pm | Report comment
Cant believe Wales beat NZ, but this was a fairly good Australian side with several super rugby players.
Future is looking good for the Pumas.
June 9th 2012 @ 5:44pm
Working Class Rugger said | June 9th 2012 @ 5:44pm | Report comment
The Pumitas didn’t really ‘play’ that much Rugby. Much of the loss has to fall on our guys who despite the obvious advantage in the contact zone kept trying to play dry weather Rugby in the soaking wet. It didn’t help that the officials were frankly abysmal throughout. The Argies continually infringed at the ruck. Their 1/2 was offside at nearly every scrum and neither of their hookers threw a straight lineout ball, but, where only called on it twice.
June 9th 2012 @ 11:46pm
Gonzalo said | June 9th 2012 @ 11:46pm | Report comment
sorry , but like it or not “Argies” read the macht very well. Knew how to play with wet weather, thats rugby too. Like football, ofense is not all, defense is part of the game and Pumas build a strong defence against France and wallabies. Pumas skills growth. I hope this team go so far
June 10th 2012 @ 5:11pm
stillmissit said | June 10th 2012 @ 5:11pm | Report comment
Gonzalo providing it stays wet they will go right through to the finals. If it turns dry NZ or AUS (assuming they go on) will stick 20 points up them. But it still won’t be a whitewash there are some good footballers in that Argentian team.
June 9th 2012 @ 6:04pm
Moreton Bait said | June 9th 2012 @ 6:04pm | Report comment
Braindead gameplan in the conditions. Nucifora’s poor coaching record plumbs even newer depths!!
June 10th 2012 @ 11:37am
Blinky Bill of Bellingen said | June 10th 2012 @ 11:37am | Report comment
Seems to me that all Nuci had to do to prepare for that game in the wet was to ensure that everyone watched the Newcastle test and then ask ‘and now what should the Wallabies have done to beat Scotland’?
June 10th 2012 @ 5:07pm
stillmissit said | June 10th 2012 @ 5:07pm | Report comment
Blinky – exactly – how stupid can you be? It was written all over the game on Tueday how to play wet weather football, yet our boys went out there and tried to play open attacking football. A Greek tragedy would not dream up a battle lost this stupidly and this decidedly.
June 10th 2012 @ 5:55pm
Blinky Bill of Bellingen said | June 10th 2012 @ 5:55pm | Report comment
What I did like was the young Argies scrum (what’s a young Puma called?). I was amazed how they took they hit and then powered in when the ball was fed. It was great to watch.
IMHO these guys have the scrum down to a science. Oh to have some of that going on in Oz.
June 10th 2012 @ 3:21pm
AJ sport said | June 10th 2012 @ 3:21pm | Report comment
It’s no wonder Aussies cant play wet weather Rugby.
My son played from 5 years old until he was 17 as a Junior and not once did he play in real wet conditions.
Whenever there was a spit of rain the Councils would call off all Sport on their grounds.
June 10th 2012 @ 5:09pm
stillmissit said | June 10th 2012 @ 5:09pm | Report comment
AJ: I had forgotten about that, of course this is the issue!
In my day we played in 6″ of mud and had a wet plan and a dry plan. In the council controlled world you don’t need a wet plan.
June 10th 2012 @ 9:03pm
Baldy from Manly said | June 10th 2012 @ 9:03pm | Report comment
Can any person tell me how NUCIFORA is in such a position of power in Australian Rugby ? My information is that he is now trying to run the Australian Referees as well.
June 11th 2012 @ 8:21am
The Bone said | June 11th 2012 @ 8:21am | Report comment
Cant answer that for you Baldy, but quite clearly this guy has too much power.