Argentina put Chile to the sword in historic South American derby
Nicolas Sanchez marked his 100th Test appearance by contributing 20 points as Argentina stayed on course for the World Cup quarter-finals with a 59-5 win over Chile in Nantes.
Fly-half Sanchez went over for a superb early solo try in the corner and kicked 15 further points to help lift Argentina up to third in Pool D after registering a 40th straight win over their South American neighbours.
The Pumas scored eight converted tries and now face a showdown with Japan on October 8 in their bid to finish second in the group behind England.
Michael Cheika’s side had reignited their World Cup hopes by beating Samoa 19-10 after their opening defeat to England and this first World Cup meeting between two South American nations was a must-win match.
Sanchez became only the second Pumas player to reach 100 caps for his country after Sale hooker Agustin Creevy and both players played key roles against Chile.
The Brive fly-half followed up his early try with a penalty and converted first-half tries from flanker Juan Martin Gonzalez and Creevy.
Pumas winger Rodrigo Isgro was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle on Rodrigo Fernandez and returned for the second half.
Chile, beaten in all 39 previous encounters between the two nations, had lost to Japan, Samoa and England in their first three group matches, but they competed gamely.
After Argentina full-back Martin Bogado’s converted try early in the second half extended his side’s lead to 31-0, Chile hooker Augusto Bohme barged over, but his score was ruled out for a forward pass.
Isgro powered over to touch down and Gonzalez’s second try of the match – both converted by Sanchez – made it 45-0 with 12 minutes left.
Chile were rewarded for their battling spirit by Tomas Dussaillant’s close-range try, which was greeted by one of the biggest cheers of the match.
Ignacio Ruiz and Santiago Carreras both went over for converted tries for Argentina in the closing stages, with Carreras adding the extras.
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They also use a far more consistent scale.
Rugby pass seem to have a different scale for each player based on the authors expectations or how much he likes them.
Can't fathom how Moodie and Reece both were a 3.
Go to commentsYes for sure, thanks for sharing. I fully understand that both parties are better off, no one needs to lose, neither competition suffers, in fact both can be better as a result.
Too many true rugby fans (and analysts) don't understand that.
I wouldn't imagine there is a date aye. It was a long decline rugby in SA and Australia was going through, and was so bad it even effected NZ, caused them to argue to can a couple of teams. The nation of SA probably grew into it? I know I watch more of the NH now specifically because of the SR teams playing there. I actually had to mention to Nick Bishop (because of his stubborn perspective) the other day that I've never been a fan of Super Rugby, I don't think they chose the right way to go about professionalism back in 1995. Unfortunately, NZR was stuck between a rock and a hard place, because it had SA's and Australians that ran their unions by States, so we had to separate into "two or three" teams as a result. Our game is in the kak now because of it, they want to kill off the lifeblood of our National Provincial Championship. But now we might see a way out of it, so it's all good.
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