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During the final weeks of waiting for Rugby World Cup 2019 to arrive Americas Rugby News will be taking a look back at some moments from past RWCs involving competitors from the Americas. In week four the feature team is Argentina.
In day three of the series the feature is Los Pumas’ history-making match against Ireland to secure a Quarter Final spot in 1999. The match was a knock-out fixture which both teams had qualified for following their performances in the pool stage.
Argentina had played in the tournament opener against Wales, losing narrowly. From there they would record wins over Samoa and Japan. Ireland would also win two pool matches as they defeated both Romania, and the USA but were beaten by Australia.
Pivotal to Argentina reaching the Quarter Final play-off vs Ireland was Gonzalo Quesada. Against Samoa he would score 27 points in a career-defining performance. He would kick Los Pumas back from a 16-3 half-time deficit to a 32-16 victory.
Against Ireland it would appear that Quesada had met his match. Irish fly half David Humpreys would kick 24 points which came in the form of seven penalties and one drop-goal. Quesada would land six penalties which saw the match decided by the only try of the game.
With eight minutes left to play Los Pumas would score through winger Diego Albanese. It came from a scrum with a set-move seeing replacement Felipe Contepomi throw a cut-out pass to Albanese who would speed in to score in the corner. Quesada landed the sideline conversion to put Argentina ahead and set-up a thrilling finish.
