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Argentina’s inaugural win in a RWC match was Los Pumas’ second fixture. It came against Italy in 1987 in Christchurch, New Zealand. The two teams were playing their second matches out of three and had both lost their prior games.
First up for Argentina was the unpredictable Fiji in Rotorua. Los Pumas were favorites to win the match, however the Pacific Islanders pulled-off an impressive upset to be comprehensive winners. The 28-9 result meant that Argentina had to win their remaining games.
The Italians debuted against tournament co-hosts New Zealand. That match was the first ever RWC match. New Zealand were 70-6 winners. This meant that Italy needed to beat both Argentina and Fiji in their remaining pool matches.
The setting was thus in place for what was a must win pool match between the Latin rivals Argentina and Italy. The match saw four tries scored with the hero being Argentina’s player of the century, Hugo Porta. The great fly half scored 17 points, thereby outscoring Italy on his own. His goal-kicking and play making were both pivotal components to the match.
SCORING
ARGENTINA (25)
Try: Lanza, Gómez
Conversion: Porta
Penalty: Porta (5)
ITALY (16)
Try: Innocenti, Cuttitta
Conversion: Collodo
Penalty: Collodo (2)
TEAMS
ARGENTINA
1 Serafin Dengra, 2 Diego Cash, 3 Luis Molina, 4 Eliseo Branca, 5 Sergio Carossio, 6 Jorge Allen, 7 Alejandro Schiavio, 8 Gabriel Travaglini, 9 Martin Yanguela, 10 Hugo Porta (capt.), 11 Pedro Lanza, 12 Rafael Madero, 13 Diego Cuesta Silva, 14 Juan Lanza, 15 Sebastian Salvat
Replacements: 16 Guillermo Angaut, 17 Marcelo Campo, 18 Fabio Gomez, 19 Jose Mostany, 20 Fernando Morel, 21 Julio Clement
ITALY
1 Guido Rossi, 2 Antonio Galeazzo, 3 Tito Lupini, 4 Mauro Gardin, 5 Antonio Colella, 6 Mario Pavin, 7 Marzio Innocenti (capt.), 8 Gianni Zanon, 9 Fulvio Lorigiola, 10 Oscar Collodo, 11 Marcello Cuttitta, 12 Stefano Barba, 13 Fabio Gaetaniello, 14 Massimo Mascioletti, 15 Daniele Tebaldi
Replacements: 16 Stefano Romagnoli, 17 Franco Berni, 18 Raffaele Dolfato, 19 Alessandro Ghini, 20 Rodolfo Ambrosio, 21 Sergio Zorzi
