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Argentina claimed a bonus point win over Chile in Nantes on Saturday. The contest marked the first-ever Rugby World Cup fixture between two South American countries. Los Pumas scored eight tries to one in completing a 59-5 victory.
Playing in his 100th test match for Argentina, Nicolás Sánchez led out Los Pumas. He won the Man-of-the-Match award with a personal 20-point-haul. He opened the scoring in the 9th minute with a solo try. Sánchez broke the defensive line, beating three defenders and throwing a dummy-pass to score.
Sánchez landed the wide conversion before landing a penalty minutes later. 10-0 became 17-0 in the opening quarter. A lineout to maul drive saw flanker Juan Martin González over for his first of two tries for the match.
More muscle from the forwards saw the third try come five minutes later. Again it was a deriving maul following Guido Petti’s clean work in a lineout. Veteran Agustín Creevy attached to the back and went over for a try.
Determination from Los Cóndores saw the Chileans holding out Argentina for the remainder of the opening half. Chile competed well in the break-down to force handling errors.
Argentina’s search for tries via the forwards took a step back early-on in the second-half. Martín Bogado and Rodrigo Isgró both put their hands up for selection against Japan with tries. First, Bogado defeated two defenders and stepped inside another to score. Second, a superb line saw Isgró linking with Lautaro Bazán Vélez to split the defense and then get past Rodrigo Fernández and Iñaki Ayarza.
Facundo Isa was another player to take his opportunity against Chile. An off-load while in contact put over González for the next score. Chile were 45-0 down with eleven minutes left to play. They had earlier heartbreak with a disallowed try.
Los Cóndores made sure they came away with a try. A twelve-man rolling-maul saw Tomás Dussaillant scoring for Chile. It was justified reward for Chile’s never-say-die approach against stronger and vastly more experienced opponents.
Argentina’s replacement hooker, Ignacio Ruiz responded with a try of his own from a pick-and-go minutes later. Santiago Carreras converted the try but was not done yet. Linking and speed from Bogado, Juan Cruz Mallía and Carreras saw the Gloucester play-maker over. He converted from wide to finish with nine points in just three minutes of game-time.
With the win Argentina live to fight another day. Argentina remain in Nantes for another eight days. The winner-takes-all Pool match against Japan on Sunday will determine who advances to the Quarter Finals and who is eliminated.
Chile’s inaugural Rugby World Cup has concluded. Los Cóndores demonstrated that there are more than the traditional countries who deserve to be at Rugby World Cups. Chile’s willingness to compete and hunger for tries underlines the gains to be made from expanding the Rugby World Cup to 24-teams.
SCORING
ARGENTINA (59)
Try – N Sanchez (9′), JM Gonzalez 2 (16′, 68′), A Creevy (23′), M Bogado (46′), R Isgro (64′), I Ruiz (77′), S Carreras (79′)
Con – N Sanchez 6/6 (10′, 17′, 24′, 47′, 65′, 69′), S Carreras 2/2 (78′, 81′)
Pen – N Sánchez 1/1 (13′)
YC – R Isgró (26′)
CHILE (5)
Try – T Dussaillant (73′)
Con – S Videla 0/1
Pen – S Videla 0/1
DG – M Garafulic 0/1
TEAMS
ARGENTINA
1 Joel Sclavi, 2 Agustín Creevy, 3 Eduardo Bello, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 6 Juan Martín González, 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Facundo Isa, 9 Tomás Cubelli, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 11 Juan Imhoff, 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente (capt.), 13 Lucio Cinti, 14 Rodrigo Isgró, 15 Martín Bogado
Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Francisco Gómez Kodela, 19 Matías Alemanno, 20 Joaquín Oviedo, 21 Lautaro Bazán Vélez, 22 Santiago Carreras, 23 Juan Cruz Mallía
CHILE
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Augusto Bohme, 3 Matías Dittus, 4 Santiago Pedrero, 5 Javier Eissmann, 6 Martín Sigren (capt.), 7 Clemente Saavedra, 8 Raimundo Martínez, 9 Marcelo Torrealba, 10 Rodrigo Fernández, 11 José Ignacio Larenas, 12 Matías Garafulic, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Santiago Videla, 15 Iñaki Ayarza
Replacements: 16 Tomás Dussaillant, 17 Salvador Lues, 18 Esteban Inostroza, 19 Augusto Sarmiento, 20 Alfonso Escobar, 21 Ignacio Silva, 22 Nicolas Herreros, 23 Francisco Urroz
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner (Australia); James Doleman (New Zealand)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
