Argentina Too Strong for Japan in Tokyo

Argentina were too strong for Japan, winning 54-20 this morning in Tokyo. The win gives the South Americans the perfect start to their November tour. They will now fly west to the U.K. and face Wales next Saturday.

Argentina will land in Cardiff knowing that the first mission of their tour has been completed. In defeating the Japanese, Argentina return to the world’s top 8. Their new World Ranking will be 7th. Should Wales lose by 15+ vs Australia later on today then Argentina will be 6th.

All of the twelve automatic qualifiers for Rugby World Cup 2019 are battling it out this month in the rankings. The draw for Japan 2019 will take place based on the rankings in May 2017. This month is thus a last-chance-saloon for Los Pumas. From their perspective being ranked no lower than 8th is mandatory while reaching the top 4 is ideal.

This morning’s win over the Japanese means the following is the current seeding for 2019.

Band 1	New Zealand	England	Australia	South Africa
Band 2	Wales	Ireland	Argentina	France
Band 3	Scotland	Georgia	Japan	Italy

Hardened-up from the Rugby Championship Los Pumas were up against a team in transition. Jamie Joseph was making his debut as Head Coach and he had a much changed side to that from a year ago. His opposite, Daniel Hourcade, fielded a side with only Tomás Lezana not having played in the Rugby Championship.

Stability, match preparation and rankings all have Argentina advantage. Completing the win, though, was about remaining focused one tackle at a time. Argentina’s willingness to offload created opportunities but it also resulted in many handling errors.

Japan opened the scoring through Yu Tamura. The fly half landed his first of two opening half penalties before the game’s first try. The try came through Matías Moroni. Playing out of position on the right wing, Moroni ran over for a well-taken score.

Nicolás Sánchez missed the conversion though superiority at the scrum saw his name quickly on the scoresheet. His first of three penalties for the night contributed to a solid showing from the Tucumán fly half. His 29 points set a new personal best, surpassing his 25 vs Tonga at Leicester.

Argentina’s forwards provided the backs with a solid platform. This also saw all points scored from the backs. Sánchez would cross for the remaining first half try. He would also add two further penalties, giving Los Pumas a 21-6 half time lead.

A storming start to the second half wrapped up a win for Hourcade’s team. Moroni and Sánchez both scored second tries. Also completing two was Santiago Cordero. The winger’s remarkable try scoring rate in away matches continued. He scored in Nelspruit, Hamilton and Perth in the Rugby Championship but none at home.

Also scoring was Tomás Cubelli. The replacement scrum half linked with Ramiro Moyano to dive over for a simple score. Moyano had displayed his attacking prowess to step through the defense and put over an unmarked Cubelli.

The Japanese hit back through debutant Lomano Lemeki. His try was Japan’s second and the final score of the match. Earlier No8 Amanaki Mafi had gone over.

 

SCORING

JAPAN 20
Tries – A. Mafi (52′), L. Lemeki (79′)
Cons – T. Tamura 2 (52′, 80′)
Pens – Y. Tamura 2 (5′, 22′)

ARGENTINA 54
Tries – M. Moroni 2 (13′, 48′), N. Sánchez 2 (35′, 62′), S. Cordero 2 (42′, 65′), T. Cubelli (74′)
Cons – N. Sánchez 5 (36′, 43′, 49′, 66′, 75′)
Pens – N. Sánchez 3 (18′, 32′, 39′)

 

TEAMS

JAPAN
1 Satoshi Nakatani (17 Koki Yamamoto 60′), 2 Shota Horie (capt.) (16 Takeshi Kizu 49′), 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama (18 Heiichiro Ito HT), 4 Kyosuke Kajikawa, 5 Samuela Anise (19 Kotaro Yatabe HT), 6 Uwe Helu (20 Malgene Ilaua HT), 7 Yuhimaru Mimura (21 Shuhei Matsuhashi 50′), 8 Amanaki Mafi, 9 Fumiaki Tanaka (22 Takahiro Ogawa 72′), 10 Yu Tamura, 11 Akihito Yamada, 12 Harumichi Tatekawa, 13 Amanaki Loto’ahea (23 Timothy Lafaele 60′), 14 Lomano Lemeki, 15 Kotaro Matsushima

ARGENTINA
1 Lucas Noguera Paz (17 Santiago García Botta 65′), 2 Agustín Creevy (capt.) (16 Julian Montoya 53′), 3 Ramiro Herrera (18 Enrique Pieretto 53′), 4 Guido Petti (20 Juan Manuel Leguizamon 5′-13′, 58′), 5 Matías Alemanno, 6 Tomás Lezana, 7 Javier Ortega Desio, 8 Facundo Isa (19 Leonardo Senatore 50′), 9 Martín Landajo (21 Tomas Cubelli 53′), 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 11 Santiago Cordero, 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente (22 Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias 63′), 13 Matías Orlando, 14 Matías Moroni, 15 Joaquín Tuculet (23 Ramiro Moyano 50′)

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Romain Poite (FFR)
Assistants: Craig Maxwell-Keys (RFU) & Tim Baker (HKRU)
TMO: Simon McDowell (IRFU)