Chile in strange defeat

Chile's Condors led Uruguay's Teros 27-0 and lost 35-34 at the Prince of Wales Country Club in Santiago on Saturday, a huge turnaround.

At half-time the Condors led 27-0. With a minute to go the home side led 34-28 but then the Teros counterattacked and won the opening match of the South American Championship.

A penalty converted by Berti three minutes after the game started, and a try scored six minutes after by Paul Marsali and converted by Berti really surprised both the 3000 spectators that went to the Prince of Wales Country Club in Santiago and the Uruguayan opponents. Chile was playing a magnificent game, moving the ball from one side of the field to the other, back and forth, looking and finding spaces, and most of all, avoiding long contact with the heavy, light blue forwards. When contact could not be avoided, the Chileans made quick phases and opened the ball really quickly, something very rare for Chilean teams.

A penalty scored by Berti, and tries scored by Matetic and Coda, both converted by Berti, gave the Chileans a reasonable advantage at the half time. 27-0 was a score that made everybody think that the game was going to be for the Chileans, after many years of continuos defeats.

Uruguay were unable to play their game. They just could get hold of the ball and, the few times they had it, the Chilean pressure was there, stopping them from going forward.

The second half was absolutely different. Uruguay's excellent flyhalf Arocena (the man of the match) was moved to the position of fullback, and Caffera took over the position of flyhalf. Two penalties scored by Caffera gave Uruguay the chance to get closer on the scoreboard, but Chile still had something to say and wing Coda scored a try converted by Berti, on minute 51.

Uruguay knew that they should attack Chile between scrumhalf and flyhalf. The path was there and they really used it. Chile was tired, they moved slowly and they were not able to cover all the field fast enough to avoid getting more points against them. They lost their initiative, they lost the ball, and Uruguay then started to play their game. Six replacements entered the field of play (they had already replaced their loosehead prop Sanchez who was injured in the first half), giving their team fresh players. Chile, on the other hand, incredibly replaced only their tighthead because of an injury and, on minute 67, replaced player a flank.

Tries scored by Potasi, Arocena (2) and a penalty scored by Caffera on minute 75 left the scoreboard showing 34 points for Chile and 28 points for Uruguay. With one minute to play, the referee Borghi awarded Uruguay a penalty, which was turned into a scrum. For the first time in the game, Uruguay pushed Chile's forwards back and No.8 Conti scored a scrum try. The conversion was left once more to the foot of Caffera, who did not miss the shot, and left the numbers 34 for Chile and 35 for Uruguay.

Scorers:

Tries: Matetic, Coda 2

Cons: Berti 3

Pens: Berti 2

For Uruguay:

Tries: Protasi, Arocena 2, Conti

Cons: Caffera 3

Pens: Caffera 3

Teams

Chile squad: Andres Matetic, Rodrigo Coda, Jose Olave, Sebastian Del Solar, Joaquin Erlbaun, Gabriel Moreno, Patrick Muller, Manuel Gurruchaga, Francisco Cruz, Edmundo Olfos, Diego Vega, German Suazo, Nicolas Venegas, Cristobal Berti, Felipe Burgos, Sebastian Garcia, Pablo Mainguyague, Nicolas Arancibia, Bernardo Garcia, Cristian Manzur, Paul Marsalli, Victor Sifri

Uruguay squad: Alvaro Acqusitapace, Carlos Arboleya, Matias Arocena, Francisco Bulanti, Emiliano Caffera, Juan Campomar, Federico Capo, Santiago Carracedo, Ignacio Conti, Martin Espiga, Nicola Grilles, Nicolas Klappembach, Labat Juan, Pablo Lemoine, Martin Llovet, Manuel Martinez, Nicolas Morales, Joaquin Pastore, Gonzalo Peyrou, Carlos Protasi, Mario Sagario, Rodrigo Sanchez, Andres Vazquez

Referee: Leonardo Borghi (Argentina)

Touch judges: Salvador Encinas (Chile), Christian Rudloff (Chile)