France fly past Argentina

A strong second half saw France fly past Argentina today in Lille. The hosts were too combative for Los Pumas in winning 28-13. Their win came despite Argentina having been just one point behind at half time.

Reminiscent of Argentina’s last appearance in Lille, the South Americans started strongly before losing the arm-wrestle and conceding defeat to Les Bleus. The loss last time around was by 17 points while today was 15.

For Argentina the defeat was their fourth in-a-row. Since defeating Australia away in the Rugby Championship Los Pumas have lost against New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and now France.

A theme in all four defeats was an inability to score second half points while conceding many. France’s win today highlighted the pattern as they went from 11-10 ahead at half time to win 28-13.

Argentina’s only try of the match came in the opening minutes. Having won the ball in contact, Argentina struck gold. A half break from Jerónimo de la Fuente and a neat pass saw Ramiro Moyano gathering and darting infield to cross under the posts.

Nicolás Sánchez converted the opening score before he and Baptiste Serin traded penalties to make it a 10-3 scoreline after 14 minutes.

Ten minutes later and France cut the deficit to two. From a set-piece move Teddy Thomas went over in the right corner. The try involved complex interchanging of passes with Yoann Huget coming off his wing to break mid-field and keep the ball alive for Thomas to finish it off.

The score was unconverted, meaning Argentina were 10-8 ahead. The lead would not last however as Serin struck a 32nd minute penalty to give Les Bleus the lead for the first time.

Argentina opened the second half scoring, doing so via Sánchez. His 45th minute goal was Los Pumas’ final score of the match.

Despite leading Argentina were not looking in control. Centers Gaël Fickou, and Mathieu Bastareaud were causing Los Pumas all kinds of problems with Matías Orlando being targeted by the duo.

France’s second try of the evening would come via Fickou. In converting his form for Stade Français into the center stepped though the Pumas defense before passing a long pass out to Thomas who went over for his second. With 30 minutes left to play France were ahead 18-13.

Scoring resumed in the 67th minute through Serin. The scrum half put France 8 points ahead to make it a two score lead. It proved to be beyond Argentina who would be guilty of gifting the opposition their next score.

Having won a line-out five meters from their own try line, Argentine replacement Tomás Lezana would cough-up a simple pass to French hooker Guilhem Guirado. The captain needed no invitation as he happily went over to secure his team’s first win since the Six Nations.

Both France and Argentina will play again next Saturday. Les Bleus return to Paris to face Fiji while Argentina take-on Scotland in Edinburgh. Fiji won today against Uruguay while Scotland pushed South Africa in a tight match.

 

SCORING

FRANCE 28
Tries – T. Thomas 2 (25′, 49′), G. Guirado (71′)
Cons – B. Serin 2/3 (50′, 72′)
Pens – B. Serin 3/3 (8′, 33′, 68′)

ARGENTINA 13
Tries – R. Moyano (2′)
Cons – N. Sánchez 1/1 (3′)
Pens – N. Sánchez 2/2 (10′, 46′)

 

TEAMS

FRANCE
1 Jefferson Poirot (17 Dany Priso 60′), 2 Guilhem Guirado (capt.) (16 Camille Chat 74′), 3 Cedate Gomes Sa (18 Rabah Slimani 46′), 4 Sébastien Vaha’amahina, 5 Yoann Maestri (19 Paul Gabrillagues 74′), 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 7 Arthur Iturria, 8 Louis Picamoles (20 Mathieu Babillot 68′), 9 Baptiste Serin (21 Antoine Dupont 74′), 10 Camille Lopez (22 Anthony Belleau 74′), 11 Yoann Huget, 12 Gaël Fickou, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 14 Teddy Thomas, 15 Maxime Médard (23 Benjamin Fall 3′)

ARGENTINA
1 Santiago García Botta (17 Juan Pablo Zeiss 54′), 2 Agustín Creevy (16 Julián Montoya 60′), 3 Santiago Medrano (18 Lucio Sordoni 72′), 4 Matías Alemanno, 5 Tomás Lavanini (19 Mariano Galarza 60′), 6 Pablo Matera (capt.), 7 Guido Petti (21 Tomás Lezana 60′), 8 Javier Ortega Desio (20 Rodrigo Bruni 68′), 9 Gonzalo Bertranou (22 Tomás Cubelli 76′), 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 11 Ramiro Moyano (23 Matías Moroni 64′), 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente, 13 Matías Orlando, 14 Bautista Delguy, 15 Emiliano Boffelli

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Glen Jackson (NZRU)
Assistants: Matthew Carley (RFU) & Ian Davies (WRU)
TMO: David Grashoff (RFU)