They regained their splendor; Once again it was the same ones who had dominated the racetrack lately. The Pumas defeated Fiji 29-21 to qualify for the Cape Town Sevens final: From 11:43 a.m. they face South Africa, who beat France 22:17 and are trying to repeat the celebration at home for the second year in a row.
The first attempt came in the first action of the game through Santiago Mare, who helped himself with kicks before shooting into the goal. In the previous scene, Luciano González had shown a great run down the left that was unstoppable and a pure strike to break through the Fijian defense and destabilize the rival’s structure.
But the attacking ambition continued in the next minute as Santiago Alvarez scored with pure conviction and, after a sharp tackle from Marcos Moneta, outpaced several Fijians to take a 12-0 lead.
A minute and a half before the end of the first half, Santiago Alvarez scored again after the overwhelming Argentine pressure that left the Oceanic team no chance. The supremacy of the Albiceleste was very clear; He gave an opponent who appeared dazed no chance.
It is true that Argentina had a bad moment shortly afterwards because of the yellow card received by Luciano González, but Santiago Gómez Cora’s team regained the ball and ended the first stage with a lead of 17 to 0. The score was unbeatable: three tries and absolute Argentine dominance in the first seven minutes of the game.
The game seemed to be sealed in the second period with a powerful diagonal run from Moneta and the release for Lucho González, who had just served a time-out for a yellow card. Thus, Argentina led 22-0 and controlled the development in the face of the confusion of Fiji, who, however, broke through the defense through Naduvalo and, unbalanced in the middle, scored a goal and increased the score to 22-7.
But it was just a mirage: Toto Mare, the Regatas man, received a pass with his foot from Morales and was able to break through the Fiji defense; So he settled the lawsuit (29-7). All apart from the fact that Naduvalo and Maisomoa scored in the final seconds to level the score at 29-21 while the game was already decided.
Valentín Maldonado said after the game: “It was about respecting the game plan, working with humility and we did it. We are doing very well, the final is about not deviating from the script and we hope it goes well for us.”
It was a great performance from Los Pumas 7s, with Lucho González the most prominent figure after finishing eighth and final in Dubai last week. Now the Pumas 7s have regained their core and are going through South Africa, the most difficult test.
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