Progress in international rugby is rarely a straight line, and Wales were given a blunt reminder of that in San Juan. Argentina beat Steve Tandy’s side 35-21 in round two of the Nations Championship at the Estadio San Juan del Bicentenario on Saturday, according to Sky Sports, with Joaquín Oviedo scoring twice as Los Pumas pulled away either side of half-time.
Dewi Lake’s early try had given Wales a bright start, and Rhys Carré’s score levelled matters at 14-14 after a Jac Morgan try was ruled out moments earlier, ESPN reported, but Argentina reeled off three tries in a 13-minute spell to lead 28-14 at the break. Sam Costelow converted all three Welsh tries, while Ben Warren’s late score proved a consolation, Sky Sports reported. For a Wales side buoyed by last week’s win over Fiji, the manner of the second-quarter collapse will sting more than the final score.
Yet look beneath the result and a clearer picture of where this Wales side stands begins to emerge.
Where The Afternoon Unravelled
RugbyPass’s player ratings noted that Wales made 117 tackles in the first half alone, missing 20, compared to Argentina’s 66 made and just three missed. That defensive workload, sustained without reward, told its own story. Tandy admitted afterwards that his side had been “second best physically,” according to Nation.Cymru, and pointed to that as the decisive factor in a game Wales had led inside the opening five minutes.
There were still signs of encouragement. Tandy felt his players responded well after the break, with Wales in contention for a losing bonus point until the closing stages, and the head coach argued that testing this developing squad against a rejuvenated Argentina side – themselves bouncing back from defeat to Scotland in round one, Sky Sports noted – would pay off in the long run.
A Daunting Examination Awaits
The timing of the lesson could hardly be sterner. Wales travel to Durban to face world champions South Africa in round three of the Nations Championship on Saturday 18 July, according to World Rugby’s official fixture schedule, with kick-off at Hollywoodbets Kings Park set for 16:40 UK time. It is a meeting between the top-ranked side in the world and a Wales team currently 11th, and it follows a weekend in which Rassie Erasmus’s Springboks needed a nervy 42-28 win over Scotland at Loftus Versfeld to stay unbeaten.
Defeat in Argentina also ended Wales’ hopes of a first win on South American soil since 2018, Nation.Cymru reported, but Tandy was adamant his squad would take lessons from San Juan into a fixture that will test them far more severely than anything they have faced so far this campaign.
There is context to Argentina’s win too. Los Pumas arrived in San Juan having been beaten by Scotland in round one, and Sky Sports’s coverage framed Saturday’s performance as exactly the kind of response their head coach had demanded, with Oviedo’s double the standout individual contribution in a five-try haul that overwhelmed Wales after the opening exchanges. That Argentina could brush aside their own setback so emphatically only underlines how far Tandy’s group still have to travel before they can claim the same consistency.
The message from the Wales camp is consistent: patience is required while Tandy reshapes this squad around a new generation of players. But with the world champions waiting in Durban and questions already being asked about physicality and depth, the margin for error before that patience is tested in earnest is growing thinner by the week.
