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Argentina U20's forward pack dominates Australia U20 for historic win
By Ned Lester
After a convenient 80-minute break for the opening game of the day, the rain returned to welcome Australia and Argentina to the field at Sunshine Coast Stadium.
In trying conditions, it was inevitably the stronger forward pack that won the contest, and that honour comfortably went to Argentina.
The teams had learnt from the match prior, a 13-all draw between New Zealand and South Africa, that points would be hard to come by in the conditions and so opted to take the three points when on offer.
The sodden pitch made accuracy around the breakdown a little extra challenging and both teams were guilty of penalties around the ruck early.
The inaccuracies saw the game reach a 3-all scoreline by the 10th minute. The wind was in favour of the Australians but the territory game didn't necessarily reflect that.
Argentina's forward pack proved dominant early on in the scrum and the team used it to their advantage, charging forward with lineout maul drives that covered 20-odd metres.
The Argentinian team struggled to capitalise on their dominance though, with two missed penalties, the latter from a favourable angle leaving the game tied.
Things got worse for the Australians when No. 8 Jack Harley was handed a yellow card, leading to an Argentinian try just a minute later. Santino Di Lucca added the extras. Halftime score 10-3.
Argentina started the second half in fine form with a try to Juan Pedro Bernasconi from close range. The conversion went awry but just moments later Di had a chance at redemption and landed a penalty to make the lead 15.
The hosts then found their feet on attack, with an ambitious chip and chase collected by centre Jarrah McLeod, spurring a classic Australian chant from the crowd.
Execution issues saw the chance to capitalise on that momentum go begging, with both handling and lineout troubles to blame.
Argentina remained composed under the pressure but with the wildest downpour of the day drenching the field, the ball was spilled off a 22m drop-out and Australia charged upfield once more.
The attack finally earned a penalty and Australia opted to take the three points, cutting the lead to 12.
Argentina's reserve front row may not have offered the same dominance as the starters but they earned a timely penalty in the 63rd minute, pushing play into Australia's half.
The rain made handling errors almost inevitable and scrums dominated the action. Although the Australian pack stepped up for a period, the visitors went back to the scrum time after time.
The final quarter of the contest was slow with more time spent setting for scrums than playing with the ball in hand.
Argentina set up camp in the Australian 22 for the final 10 minutes, and just after Australia was issued a warning for their indiscretions at scrum time, there was just two phases needed to score a game-sealing try. Final score: 25-6.
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Latest Comments
The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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