The national team led by Joaquín Todeschini fought with everything, but failed to beat the African team who only managed to achieve victory in the last minutes.
The Cóndors managed to remain second in the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger Series in Dubai 2024 with exceptional participation. After beating Germany in the semi-final, the national team faced Kenya in the final of the tournament.
From the first minute, Patrick Odongo gave the African team the lead and Anthony Omondi converted the conversion with which they took the lead 7-0. But just before the end of the first half, Benjamín Videla scored the try that gave Chile the lead. . The bad news was that Diego Wernker couldn’t give him the extra points after missing the shot between the posts.
The second half was quite competitive, so much so that it was only in the last minute that Kenya was able to breathe by scoring another try thanks to Odongo, declaring the final 12-5 for the Kenyans. .
After the match, coach Joaquín Todeschini gave his first impressions of the tournament, saying that the objectives set in the previous round had been achieved.
“The boys deserved it, we knew it would be a very difficult match, but we played with a lot of confidence. From the second half, against Tonga, the team made the click we needed and we therefore exceeded the objectives: The first was to play the semi-finals, then reach the final and put in the best possible performance there. ” said Todeschini.
For his part, Luca Strabucchi, one of the figures of Los Cóndores 7 in the tournament, commented that “the truth is that we are very happy, we took it step by step. Even though we didn’t start the tournament the way we wanted against Tonga, we worked hard in every match and felt very confident to face all our rivals. . We know that the mental part is very important, it becomes more and more difficult for us and we try to focus first and foremost on ourselves and less on the rival. “I think that’s what made the difference,” he said.
With this result, The men’s Rugby Sevens team finished second in the qualifying standings for the Madrid Sevens grand final. , which will be held in May, pending what will happen previously in Montevideo (March 8 to 10) and Munich (May 18 and 19). The 4 highest ranked teams from Dubai, Montevideo and Munich will compete in the Spanish capital.
The path of Los Cóndores 7 in Dubai
Group stage:
- Chile vs Tonga: 19-25
Try by Lucca Avelli, Luca Strabucchi and Diego Warnken.
Conversions by Diego Warnken and Álvaro Castro.
- Chile vs Japan: 24-14
Try by Nicolás Garafulic, Diego Warnken, Cristóbal Game and Luca Strabucchi.
Conversions by Diego Warnken and Luca Strabucchi.
- Chile vs Portugal: 24-0
Try by Benjamín Videla, Cristóbal Game, Nicolás Garafulic and Luca Strabucchi.
Conversions by Diego Warnken.
Quarter-finals:
- Chile against Georgia: 26-07
Try by Nicolás Garafulic, Cristóbal Game and Luca Strabucchi.
Conversions by Diego Warnken and Luca Strabucchi.
Semi-finals:
- Chile vs Germany: 15-07
Try by Clemente Armstrong, Luca Strabucchi and Ernesto Tchimino.
Final :
- Chile vs Kenya: 05-12
Try by Benjamín Videla.
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Source: Latercera
I am Robert Harris and I specialize in news media. My experience has been focused on sports journalism, particularly within the Rugby sector. I have written for various news websites in the past and currently work as an author for Athletistic, covering all things related to Rugby news.
