The Argentine rugby sevens team, Los Pumas 7s, was crowned champion of the London contest on Sunday after beating Fiji 35-14, which had just struck the blow by eliminating New Zealand in the prelude to the final. It is a new smile for the team led by Santiago Gómez Cora, who closed a magical season with a brilliant Sunday in which he had dispatched Ireland (28-14) in the quarterfinals and Samoa (10-7) in the semifinals.
The national team was strong at Twickenham. While Filipe Sauturaga had opened the scoring a minute into the game, he recovered quickly after Josese Batirerega was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Luciano Gonzalez. Thus, with the opponent diminished numerically, Argentina recovered with the tries of Germán Schulz and Marcos Moneta converted by Santiago Vera Feld. The first half ended 14-7.
At the start of the complement, Fiji surprised again from the start with another run by Sauturaga to even the match. However, Moneta with another run after a kick to the bottom set up Isgró, who supported the ball in the ingoal and put things in order for Argentina to lead 21-14 after another conversion from Vera Feld.
Argentina took off with another try from Isgró, which was again enabled by Moneta to make Los Pumas 28-14 with 2:40 left in the match.
And there was more. The icing on the cake: Moneta stretched the gap with another try and reached 100 on the world sevens circuit. Vera Feld converted and Argentina closed a brilliant 35-14. "I'm very proud of my team and my teammates. That's a lot of sensations. All this is the product of a very long process. We leave everything to get everything. We play for each other, not for ourselves," said Santiago Alvarez, captain of Los Pumas 7s.
Thus, Argentina won its third title of the season after the conquests in Hamilton and Vancouver and closed in the best way a magical season, with six finals played and with the world runner-up behind the almighty New Zealand.
The previous
Early on Sunday, Argentina had shone against the Irish team, with a strong performance that was reflected with four tries (two from Agustín Fraga and the remaining from Germán Schulz and Mateo Graziano), in addition to four conversions.
Later, in the semifinals, the Albiceleste team, bronze medal in the last Olympic Games of Tokyo 2020, had to fight intensely to overcome a brave Samoan cast, which put the victory in trouble, especially when Los Pumas were left with one less on the court, for the yellow card shown to Rodrigo Isgro.
The goals against the Oceania team (which won 7-5 at the end of the first period) were achieved by Schulz and Santiago Álvarez, with two tries.
The Pumas '7 had beaten Japan (43-12) and Fiji Islands (40-12) in the qualifying stage, but then fell to Ireland (12-14)
In the definition, scheduled for 13.26 Argentine time at the Twickenham stadium in London, the rival will be Fiji, who surprised and beat in the other semifinal to New Zealand, number 1 in the circuit, by 19-17 in an agonizing definition.
Los Pumas, who have already achieved their best historical performance on a world circuit, will be looking for their third title of the season. They have won five medals in the current circuit. He was gold in the fourth round in Hamilton and in the seventh in Vancouver; and silver in the sixth in Los Angeles, in the ninth in Singapore and last Sunday, in Toulouse.
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