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The Stade Félix Bollaert in Lens, France was the setting for a RWC classic. On the one hand, Ireland were looking to retain their record of reaching the Quarter Finals in every RWC. On the other hand, Los Pumas were seeking to reach a first ever Quarter Final.
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.
Attendance: 22,000
SCORING
ARGENTINA (28)
Try: Albanese (72′)
Conversion: Quesada (73′)
Penalty: Quesada 7 – (9′, 19′, 24′, 46′, 55′, 64′, 79′)
IRELAND (24)
Penalties: Humphreys 7 – (3′, 6′, 15′, 26′, 30′, 42′, 60′)
Drop goal: Humphreys (44′)
TEAMS
ARGENTINA
1 Mauricio Reggiardo, 2 Mario Ledesma, 3 Omar Hasan, 4 Ignacio Fernández Lobbe, 5 Alejandro Allub, 6 Santiago Phelan, 7 Rolando Martín, 8 Gonzalo Longo, 9 Agutín Pichot, 10 Gonzalo Quesada, 11 Diego Albanese, 12 Lisandro Arbizu (capt.), 13 Eduardo Simone, 14 Gonzalo Camardon, 15 Ignacio Corleto
16 Felipe Contepomi, 17 Martín Scelzo, 18 Manuel Contepomi, 19 Nicolás Fernández Miranda, 20 Miguel Ruíz, 21 Lucas Ostiglia, 22 Agustín Canalda
IRELAND
1 Reggie Corrigan, 2 Keith Wood, 3 Paul Wallace, 4 Jeremy Davidson, 5 Malcolm O’Kelly, 6 Andy Ward, 7 Kieron Dawson, 8 Dion O’Cuinneagain (capt.), 9 Tom Tierney, 10 David Humphreys, 11 Matt Mostyn, 12 Kevin Maggs, 13 Brian O’Driscoll, 14 Juston Bishop, 15 Conor O’Shea
Replacements: 16 Eric Miller, 17 Bob Casey, 18 Justin Fitzpatrick, 19 Jonathan Bell, 20 Eric Elwood, 21 Brian O’Meara, 22 Ross Nesdale
