Argentina beat the USA 42-8 at the Buenos Aires Cricket and Rugby Club in the opening match of the 2003 Pan-American Championship. The Pumas scored six tries to the youthful Eagles' one.
The USA had four new caps in their side -- prop Richard Liddington, lock Gerhard Klerck, flank Todd Clever and hooker Matt Wyatt.
Liddington led the list of first-time cap winners, scoring the Eagles' sole try of the match. Lock Klerck also made a solid start, while hooker Wyatt and flanker Clever came off the bench to good effect. The young side showed great commitment, but were not up to the experience and skill of the Argentinians.
The Pumas led 18-3 at half-time, but Liddington ran some 30 metres and scored a try early in the second half to make it 18-8 and awaken a flicker of hope in the young hearts, but really they were not going to win.
Felipe Contepomi made it 21-8 and then the Argentinians received a penalty try at a collapsed scrum and then added another two to make the result a comfortable one.
The victory puts the Pumas in line for another championship title, especially after the Canadians' very ordinary display against the Teros of Uruguay.
This is the fifth Pan-American Tournament. Argentina won the previous four without losing a match. A repeat is likely this year. The previous tournaments were in 1995, 1996, 1998 and 2001.
On Wednesday, the USA play Canada and Argentina play Uruguay. Both matches are at the San Isidro Club.
The Teams:
Argentina: 1 Roberto Grau, 2 Mario Ledesma Arocena, 3 Omar Hasan Jalil, 4 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, 5 Pedro Sporleder, 6 Pablo Bouza, 7 Martin Durand, 8 Santiago Sanz, 9 Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, 10 Felipe Contepomi, 11 Diego Albanese, 12 Lisandro Arbizu (c), 13 Martin Gaitan, 14 Hernan Senillosa, 15 Bernardo Stortoni
Reserves: Ignacio Corleto, Juan Fernandez Miranda, Mauricio Reggiardo, Rodrigo Roncero
Unused: Gonzalo Longo Elia, Rolando Martin, Agustin Pichot
United States: 1 Richard Liddington, 2 Kirk Khasigian, 3 Jacob Waasdorp, 4 Gerhard Klerck, 5 Luke Gross, 6 Jurie Gouws, 7 Kort Schubert (c), 8 Olo Fifita, 9 Kimball Kjar, 10 Matt Sherman, 11 Johnny Naqica, 12 Kain Cross, 13 Jason Keyter, 14 Mose Timoteo, 15 John Buchholz
Reserves: Todd Clever, Dan Dorsey, Paul Emerick, Alec Parker, Matt Wyatt
Unused: Phillip Eloff, Mike MacDonald
Attendance: 6000
Referee: Kuklinski b.
Points Scorers:
Argentina
Tries: Gaitan M. 1, Durand M. 1, Bouza P. 1, Reggiardo M.H. 1, Corleto I. 1, Penalty Try 1
Conv: Contepomi F. 3
Pen K.: Contepomi F. 2
United States
Tries: Liddington R. 1
Pen K.: Sherman M. 1
No comments:
Post a Comment