With three changes to the team that defeated Italy U21 on the opening day of the tournament, Wales U21 appeared to have wrapped the match up by the end of the first half despite an early setback as Argentinean wing Bottini crashed over for the first try of the match on two minutes.
Taking the opposition’s score firmly in their stride, Wales U21 composed themselves and struck back with tries from Mike Phillips, Liam Roberts and Nicky Robinson, with Robinson converting all three tries and adding two penalties to see the young dragons 25-10 to the good going in at the break. The Cardiff fly half enjoyed another splendid day in front of the posts overall with a 25-point personal haul from his try, four conversions and four penalties.
After the break, Wales U21 went up through the gears with further tries from Gareth Swales and Robin Sowden-Taylor sandwiching a solo effort at the other end from Diego Vidal. Robinson finished the scoring for Wales U21 with the last of his four penalties just two minutes from time as both Argentinean and Welsh indiscipline saw players marched to the sin-bin.
However, as the last of the Welsh points sailed up and over to put Wales U21 into a 45-17 lead, so did the fourth official’s overtime board, which stated an extra nine minutes of play and kick-started Argentina U21’s realisation that they were in an U21 World Championship encounter.
Producing a late late rally and burst of scoring, Argentina U21 scared the young dragons with three tries in quick succession through Patricio Albacete, Martin Bottini and Miguel Avramovic that dragged them to within just eleven points. It could have been as little as seven had replacement fly half Agustin Durand managed to convert more than just one of the three. However, Wales U21’s lead was unassailable as the clock ticked down and Chris Davey’s men were able to resist the late challenge to run out match winners with a 100% record in the tournament intact. The five tries scored in total during the course of the match took Wales U21’s try-count to seventeen in just two matches.
