THREE OUT OF THREE
WALES CLIMB TO THIRD IN WORLD RANKINGS:
WALES completed an impressive clean sweep on their summer tour by clinching a 2-0 series victory over Argentina in Santa Fe last night to climb to third in the World rankings.
An otherwise perfect tour was blighted in stoppage time as No.8 Ross Moriarty was shown a red card for a neck hold on Nicolas Sanchez.
Having beaten South Africa in Washington DC and then winning the first Test 23-10 in San Juan last weekend, Wales made an encouraging start in front of another partisan crowd.
They took the game to the Pumas early on and eased in front on the scoreboard with penalties from flyhalf Rhys Patchell in the 8th and 16th minutes.
In the near-perfect conditions Patchell tried his luck from long range in the 21st minute but pushed his third penalty shot wide of the posts.
But straight from the restart Wales wing Josh Adams picked up a loose ball on the Argentina 10-metre line and scythed through the defence for a brilliant solo try which Patchell improved to make it 13-0.
That provoked a response from the Pumas but, after spurning a kickable penalty chance in the 29th minute and opting to kick to the corner, they promptly turned the ball over to Wales.
After 32 minutes Wales had a try ruled out when centre Owen Watkin touched down but was ruled to have been in front of Patchell’s clever chip ahead inside the 22.
However, with referee Jaco Peyper already playing an advantage, Wales were awarded a penalty in front of the posts which Patchell slotted to make it 16-0.
Two minutes from the interval Patchell lined up another penalty from the 10-metre line and bisected the posts to give Wales a more than healthy 19-point cushion.
The Pumas needed a response and they got one just before the half-time whistle as some superb handling put winger Bautista Delguy across wide out. Fly-half Nicolas Sanchez couldn’t convert and Wales led 19-5 at the turnaround.
Barely a minute into the second half Patchell landed a penalty from halfway to make it 22-5.
With the Pumas struggling to put anything together, Patchell kicked his sixth penalty of the game in the 52nd minute after Wales had destroyed the home scrum.
Any lingering hopes of an Argentina comeback were dashed in the 56th minute when some sublime hands from Wales released full-back Hallam Amos to race through for their second try.
Patchell missed the extra points but at 30-5 Wales were already out of sight.
As both sides rang the changes the final quarter was a fairly scrappy affair with the Pumas, desperate to try and get something from game, being plagued by a series of errors.
After Moriarty’s needless dismissal in stoppage time Argentina had one last riposte with a try from replacement hooker Julian Montoya with Sanchez converting with the final kick of the game.