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The Americas will be represented in the Rugby World Cup 2023 Quarter Finals. Argentina earned among the world’s final eight teams by eliminating Japan in Nantes on Sunday. The 39-27 match was among the most entertaining of the tournament thus far.
Argentina overcame Japan in a match featuring scintillating rugby. It had everything: powerful mauls, ferocious defense, tries from longe range, difficult penalties and a drop-goal.
Los Pumas were solid in the set-piece. The South Americans won all 10 of their own scrums while Japan won 5 out of 8 of theirs. Argentina was 8 out of 9 in the lineout compared to 5 out of 6 wins for the Japanese.
Argentina made 170 tackles and missed 26. Japan completed 121 tackles and missed 29. These were both low numbers with Argentina completing 84% of their tackles compared to 72% by Japan.
Japan’s captain Kazuki Himeno was the best defender. He had a 100% completion success rate, completing all 21 of his tackles. Jack Cornelsen completed 12/12 for Japan. Pedro Rubiolo and Tomás Lavanini both had 100% completion rates but made a combined 9 tackles.
No doubt that Japan’s excellent defense saw them in the contest until very late. Siosaia Fifita made 71 meters with ball in hand. This was Japan’s best. Emiliano Boffelli made 88 meters for Argentina, Mateo Carreras ran 75 meters and Santiago Chocobares made 77 metes from his carries. The three Pumas were also Argentina’s try scorers.
Chocobares opened the scoring. The Toulouse center cut loose through the mid-field. He broke the defensive line before running into the opposition 22 and cutting infield to score. Boffelli converted for a 7-0 lead after two minutes.
Amato Fakatava hit-back for Japan. From broken play, the Tongan showed skills and pace to kick over Boffelli, regather and fool Santiago Carreras for a wonderful try. Rikiya Matsuda, locked in the scoring at 7-7 late in the opening quarter.
Boffelli missed a penalty for Los Pumas and would also be off direction with a conversion. The five missed points added to the spectacle in Nantes.
It was tries that saw Argentina outscoring Japan. Carreras means Racing in Spanish. Mateo Carreras certainly delivered as the winger scored an excellent hat-trick of tries. The first of his three tries came from Marcos Kremer pressuring the defense. From there Juan Cruz Mallía took a high ball and made a half-break. Gonzalo Bertranou ran left and found Carreras who raced in to score in the left corner.
Japan again responded. It was collectivity rather than individual brilliance. Scrum-half Naoto Saito finished off a team effort where in Lomano Lemeki broke free and in which Matsuda converted. It came minutes after a Boffelli penalty. This made it a 15-14 half-time scoreline.
Argentina had lost Pablo Matera early. Matías Alemanno was on early while in the second-half Eduardo Bello and Pedro Rubiolo also came on early in the third quarter. The efforts to speed up play worked as Argentina scored three further tries compared to Japan’s one.
Carreras ran in five minutes into the second-half. With Argentina playing advantage the ball went wide with him cutting in-field to score. Japan hit-back with six points; a penalty to Matsuda and a long-range drop-goal from Lemeki made it 22-20 after 58 minutes.
A solid scrum and a planned move saw Boffelli over in the corner. The Rosario winger combined with Mallía who made a two on one. At the other end of the field a brilliant team score saw Japan over in their own right-hand corner. Jone Naikabula’s score meant it was 29-27 with fifteen minutes left to play.
Mateo Carreras sealed his hat-trick and the win with a superb solo try. He got the better of five defenders to score his 68th minute try. Nicolás Sánchez converted and he sealed the win with a penalty five minutes from full-time.
Argentina’s win sets up a Quarter Final against Wales in Marseille next Saturday. The match will be a midday kick-off Argentine time. Wales were unbeaten in their four pool matches; defeating Australia convincingly but being pushed by Fiji, Georgia and Portugal.
The outcome of the match means Japan fly home. They do so with a significant bonus prize; Japan finished third in Pool D to automatically qualify for Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia. Pool D competitors Samoa and Chile will both need to qualify.
SCORING
ARGENTINA (39)
Try – S Chocobares (2′), M Carreras 3 (28′, 46′, 68′), E Boffelli (58′)
Con – E Boffelli 3/4 (2′, 47′, 60′), N Sánchez 1/1 (70′)
Pen – E Boffelli 1/2 (35′), N Sánchez 1/1 (75′)
JAPAN (27)
Try – A Fakatava (16′), N Saito (38′), J Naikabula (65′)
Con – R Matsuda 3/3 (17′, 39′, 67′)
Pen – R Matsuda 1/1 (52′)
DG – L Lemeki 1/1 (56′)
YC – P Labuschagne (23′)
TEAMS
ARGENTINA
1 Thomas Gallo, 2 Julián Montoya (capt.), 3 Francisco Gómez Kodela, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 6 Pablo Matera, 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Juan Martín Gonzalez, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 10 Santiago Carreras, 11 Mateo Carreras, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 13 Lucio Cinti, 14 Emiliano Boffelli, 15 Juan Cruz Mallía
Replacements: 16 Agustín Creevy, 17 Joel Sclavi, 18 Eduardo Bello, 19 Matías Alemanno, 20 Pedro Rubiolo, 21 Lautaro Bazán Vélez, 22 Nicolas Sánchez, 23 Matías Moroni
JAPAN
1 Keita Inagaki, 2 Shota Horie, 3 Ji won Gu, 4 Jack Cornelsen, 5 Amato Fakatava, 6 Michael Leitch, 7 Pieter Labuschagne, 8 Kazuki Himeno (capt.), 9 Naoto Saito, 10 Rikiya Matsuda, 11 Siosaia Fifita, 12 Ryoto Nakamura, 13 Dylan Riley, 14 Kotaro Matsushima, 15 Lomano Lemeki
Replacements: 16 Atsushi Sakate, 17 Craig Millar, 18 Asaeli Ai Valu, 19 Warner Dearns, 20 Amanaki Saumaki, 21 Yutaka Nagare, 22 Ryohei Yamanaka, 23 Jone Naikabula
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Paul Williams (New Zealand); James Doleman (New Zealand)
TMO: Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)
