Super Rugby Americas (SRA) 2026 has been shaken-up as Los Tarucas fell to a home defeat on Sunday. The result sees Los Tarucas outside of the Semi Finals zone for the first time this season. With it, the Argentine hegemony is no more as Selknam are 4th, four points above Los Tarucas.
Peñarol’s 34-20 victory came with a bonus point. The Uruguayan side remains in 6th spot though is now just 2 points adrift of Los Tarucas. It was Peñarol’s biggest result of SRA 2026 and first win over an Argentine opponent this season.
Peñarol’s victory in Tucumán was all about dominating the second-half. Los Tarucas were 17-12 up at half-time with penalties having been highly effective. The second-half was different as the men in orange only added three points while Peñarol took control, with flanker Manuel Ardao being particularly deadly with jackal turnovers.
The match began with a bang; Mateo Pasquini scored in the corner in the opening minute for Los Tarucas. Peñarol hit-back swiftly, using the lineout to maul tactic well. Hooker Joaquín Myszka touched down for the Uruguayans on 7 minutes. Justo Ferrario converted to giver Peñarol the lead.
Los Tarucas’ captain, Matías Orlando was happy to keep the score moving in the form of penalties. This saw Ignacio Cerrutti slotting four in the first-half. Peñarol, meanwhile, added to their early try with a try to tight head Agustín Iglesias.
The try was freakish as it came after a Tarucas kick rebounded and sat up for Felipe Aliaga. Los Tarucas failed to kick it out again, thus enabling Peñarol to score. Having missed his first conversion attempt, Justo Ferrario made no mistake with his second.
Peñarol took the game by the horns in the second-half. First, however, Los Tarucas added to their lead with Cerrutti landing his 5th penalty of the night. Peñarol added two tries to finish with four and claim the bonus point.
After splitting the defense, fly half Justo Ferrario scored ten minutes into the second-half while hooker, Joaquín Myszka scored his second try of the match. Los Tarucas took risks in response but were unable to score points as Peñarol disrupted the lineout and Ardao was a menace at the breakdown.
Flanker Lucas Bianchi scored ten minutes from full-time to secure the result for Peñarol. A final three points came with a Ferrario penalty in the final minute of play.
The result complicates matters for Los Tarucas. Los Tucumanos face Los Dogos in Córdoba and Los Pampas in Buenos Aires over consecutive weekends. Peñarol do not have it easy though as they have a trip to Chile to face Selknam next weekend and then a home match against Los Dogos.
 SCORING |
TARUCAS (20)
TRY – M Pasquini (1′)
PEN – I Cerrutti 5 (11′, 16′, 20′, 39′, 45′)
PEÑAROL (34)
TRY – J Myszka 2 (7′, 58′); A Iglesias (32′); J Ferrario (49′); L Bianchi (70′)
CON – J Ferrario 3 (8′, 50′, 71′)
PEN – J Ferrario (80′)
YC – J Ferrario (19′)
| LINE-UPS |
TARUCAS
1 Francisco Palazzi, 2 José Calderon, 3 Francisco Moreno, 4 Ignacio Marquieguez, 5 Luciano Asevedo, 6 Facundo Cardozo, 7 Agustín Sarelli, 8 Miguel Mukidse, 9 Matías Sauze, 10 Ignacio Cerrutti, 11 Tomás Vanni, 12 Bautista Estofan, 13 Matías Orlando (capt.), 14 Mateo Pasquini, 15 Tomás Elizalde
Replacements: 16 Raúl Guraiib, 17 Ignacio Lazarte, 18 Rodrigo Navarro, 19 Joaquín Aguilar, 20 Thiago Sbrocco, 21 Estanislao Pregot, 22 Stefano Ferro, 23 Nicolás Macome
PEÑAROL
1 Francisco Suárez, 2 Joaquín Myszka, 3 Agustín Iglesias, 4 Felipe Aliaga (capt;), 5 Manuel Rosmarino, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Lucas Bianchi, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Joaquín Suárez, 10. Justo Ferrario, 11 Santiago Marolda, 12 Noah Flesch, 13 Juan Manuel Alonso, 14 Ignacio Facciolo, 15 Nicolás Pittaluga
Replacements: 16 Sebastián Pérez, 17 Mateo Perillo, 18 Jesús Porro, 19 Manuel Ponte, 20 Ethan Fryer, 21 Ícaro Amarillo, 22 Tomás Baca Castex, 23 James Thiel
| MATCH HIGHLIGHTS |
| MATCH OFFICIALS |
VS
Referee: Tomás Bertazza (Argentina)
Assistant Referees: Juan Manuel Martínez (Argentina); Pedro Lopez Vildosa (Argentina)