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One of Argentina’s greatest wins came in 1987 against Australia. The match was game two of a two test series in Buenos Aires. The Wallabies and Los Pumas compete to a 19-19 draw in game one. As such the winner of game two would claim the series.
The match took place on November 07 at Vélez Sarsfield, some five months after the inaugural Rugby World Cup. In that tournament Los Pumas had a 1-2 outcome, claiming a win over Italy but falling to Fiji and New Zealand. The extent of the disappointment was evident in the November home series vs the Wallabies as Australia were Semi Finalists at RWC 1987.
Leading Los Pumas was World Rugby Hall of Famer Hugo Porta. The legendary Argentine no 10 scored 22 points, three more than that of the opposition. He was at his clinical best, landing two drop goals, converting Cristian Mendy’s try and also slotting five penalties.
Australia were captained by RWC 1991 and 1999 winner, Michael Lynagh. The Wallabies legend was surrounded by fellow RWC winners including RWC 1991 captain Nick Farr-Jones and the 878 point scorer Matthew Burke. Also involved was Topo Rodriguez. The loose head prop from Argentina played 12 tests for Los Pumas from 1979-1983 and 26 for Australia from 1984-1987.
ATTENDANCE: 45,000
SCORING
ARGENTINA (27)
Try: Mendy
Conversion: Porta
Penalty: Porta (5)
Dropgoal: Porta (2)
AUSTRALIA (19)
Try: Williams (2)
Conversion: Lynagh
Penalty: Lynagh (3)
TEAMS
ARGENTINA
1 Diego Cash, 2 Andrés Soares Gache, 3 Serafin Dengra, 4 Eliseo Branca, 5 Alejandro Iachetti, 6 Pablo Garreton, 7 Jorge Allen, 8 Gustavo Milano, 9 Alfredo Soares Gache, 10 Hugo Porta (capt.), 11 Alejandro Scolni, 12 Marcelo Loffreda, 13 Fabian Turnes, 14 Diego Cuesta Silva, 15 Rafael Madero
Replacements: 16 Juan Jose Angelillo, 17 Cristian Mendy, 18 Gabriel Teran Nougues, 19 Daniel Baetti Sabah, 20 Mario Carreras, 21 Dardo Gonzalez
AUSTRALIA
1 Topo Rodriguez, 2 Tom Lawton, 3 Andy McIntyre, 4 Damien Frawley, 5 Steve Cutler, 6 Julian Gardner, 7 Jeff Miller, 8 Steve Tuynman, 9 Nick Farr-Jones, 10 Steve James, 11 Matthew Burke, 12 Michael Lynagh (capt.), 13 Brett Papworth, 14 Ian Williams, 15 Andrew Leeds
Replacements: 16 Greg Martin, 17 Brian Smith, 18 Mark McBain, 19 Mark Hartill, 20 Steve Lidbury, 21 Ricky Stuart
