Argentina Get First Nations Championship win beating Wales in San Juan

In the second round of the Nations Championship, Los Pumas beat Wales 35-21 at the San Juan del Bicentenario Stadium and achieved their first win in the brand-new international competition.

The team coached by Felipe Contepomi prepared in Cuyo after losing in the opening round 47-38 against Scotland in Cordoba. Meanwhile, the Welsh team arrived in Argentina with the premise of repeating the good performance of the first round, in which they defeated Fiji 39-24 in Cardiff. The match also marked Guido Petti's 100th game forArgentine national team shirt - he became the sixth centenarian player in its history - and the debut as starters of Boris Wenger and Tomás Rapetti.

In an entertaining first half, it was Wales who struck from the start. After 3 minutes they took the lead with the first try of the match, through their captain, Dewi Lake, after a quick sequence of line-out and maul. However, Los Pumas reacted immediately and just two minutes later equalized the score thanks to a quick combination on the left between Santiago and Mateo Carreras, which culminated in Joaquín Oviedo scoring his sixth try for his country.

The Argentine national team maintained the initiative, and, at 15 minutes, Justo Piccardo scored the second try of the afternoon by crowning a great collective action, created from a brilliant aerial capture by Bautista Delguy that opened the necessary spaces to break the visiting defense. In the 22nd minute, Wales came close to equalising but New Zealand's Paul Williams cancelled out what would have been the visitors' second try after a TMO review.

However, in the next play, Wales returned to the charge and prop Rhys Carré broke the Argentine defence to make it 14-14. From there, the Pumas regained prominence and imposed their intensity in contact. Thus came the best passage of Los Pumas in the match: first, at 34 minutes, with the try to Marcos Kremer; and then, at 38 minutes, with a great sequence of passes that culminated in a try to Santiago Carreras that took the Pumas to a 28-14 half-time lead.

The Pumas came out in the second half with the same intensity with which they had closed the first half and at 7 minutes, they widened the difference on the scoreboard after a great individual play by Justo Piccardo, who with pure speed and power, beat the Welsh defence and the supporting Joaquín Oviedo scored his second try of the afternoon. The Argentine national team was not satisfied and went back to the front: at 15 minutes, Matías Moroni was very close to scoring another try, but, for the second time in the match, TMO intervened, this time ruling a knock-on.

From then on, the match entered an impasse in which both defences managed to deactivate the rival advances. However, at 26 minutes, Wales took advantage of a lack of attention from the Argentine back line for Ben Warren to score.

Despite further attempts of Wales, the Pumas tightened ranks and were solid in defense, intelligently managing possession and playing time down tp win 35-21.

Argentina 35 (Tries: Oviedo 2, Piccardo, Kremer, S Carreras; Cons: Albornoz 5) Wales 21 (Tries: Lake, Carre, Warren; Cons: Costelow 3)

Los Pumas: 1. Boris Wenger (Mayco Vivas), 2. Julián Montoya (captain), 3. Tomás Rapetti (Francisco Coria Marchetti), 4. Guido Petti, 5. Matías Alemanno (Franco Molina/Ignacio Ruiz), 6. Santiago Grondona, 7. Marcos Kremer, 8. Joaquín Oviedo (Pablo Matera), 9. Gonzalo García (Simón Benítez Cruz), 10. Tomás Albornoz, 11. Mateo Carreras (Ignacio Mendy), 12. Justo Piccardo, 13. Lucio Cinti (Matías Moroni), 14. Bautista Delguy, 15. Santiago Carreras.

Wales: 1. Rhys Carré (Nicky Smith), 2. Dewi Lake (Ryan Elias), 3. Dillon Lewis (Ben Warren), 4. Ben Carter (Teddy Williams), 5. Adam Beard, 6. James Botham, 7. Jac Morgan, 8. Aaron Wainwright (Kane James), 9. Tomos Williams (Kieran Hardy), 10. Sam Costelow, 11. Josh Adams, 12. Joe Hawkins, 13. Eddie James (Max Llewellyn), 14. Ellis me (Louis Rees-Zammit), 15. Blair Murray.

Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Angus Gardner (Australia) & Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (France)