The Pumas 7s They crushed this Sunday 31-5 Australia and they became champions of the Perth Sevens, in Australia, to win their second title after the first three stages of the world circuit of the specialty. Yeah, Santiago Gómez Cora’s pupils are intractable.
Marcos Moneta He scored the first try of the game to give the advantage to the national team, which had just beaten Ireland in the semifinals. Joaquín Pellandini He hit the conversion drop for Argentina to win the first half 7-0.
Already at the start of the second half, German Schulz accelerated fully to break the Australians and stretch the gap to 14-0 after the conversion of Santiago Mare. And the match was defined when Matías Graziano finished in the rival goal and Mare hit the target from an impossible angle to make the score 21-0.
Towards the end, Moneta and Graziano again scored a try for Los Pumas to seal a phenomenal performance and win a great game. The only mole, almost imperceptible, was Gastón Revol’s mistakes in the conversions that deprived him of the chance to surpass the thousand point line with the Los Pumas jersey. Matthew Gonzalez’s agonizing run did not change history at all.
The first competition of this season was in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and the champion was South Africa after beating Argentina 12-7, while the second date was held in Cape Town, South Africa, and Los Pumas 7s won the gold after overcoming in the final to Australia 45-12. In this way, the national team leads the table with 58 points, with a difference of 14 over Fiji and Australia (44). Further behind are South Africa and Ireland, both with 42 points, and a little further behind is New Zealand, the usual entertainer, with 32.
The great objective of Los Pumas 7s is the Paris Olympic Games, for which they qualified by being second in the last circuit behind the champion, New Zealand. The idea is to improve on the bronze achieved in Tokyo 2020 after beating Great Britain 17-12 in the third place match, which meant the first medal for the Argentine delegation at that event.
New format
With a new format, now called SVNS, the international calendar is made up of seven tournaments and a final series in which the champion of the season will be defined. The competition will last seven months with the participation of 12 selected teams, who will compete and score points in the ranking throughout the first seven stages.
After them, the eight best in the table will reach the Grand Final in Madrid to fight for the season crown, while the other four teams (from 9th to 12th place) will face the four best from the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series . The top four from that repechage will enter the following year’s SVNS main draw.
The circuit will continue with the following schedule: February 23 to 25, Vancouver Seven; March 2-3, Los Angeles Seven; April 5-7, Hong Kong Seven; May 3 to 5, Singapore Seven and May 31 to June 2 the final in Madrid Final.