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Emiliano Boffelli leads Argentina to World Cup win over Samoa
By PA
Emiliano Boffelli was the difference-maker as Argentina survived a late charge to beat Samoa and reignite their World Cup campaign.
With the Pumas losing to England in their opening Pool D fixture, they needed to beat Samoa to keep alive realistic hopes of progressing into the knockout stages.
They did that with an attritional 19-10 win in Saint-Etienne, with Boffelli delivering all the points.
Any pre-match pressures were eased when Samoa’s Duncan Paia’aua was sent to the sin-bin in the opening minute of the match.
His absence was felt as Argentina hit the front with Boffelli going over in the corner before converting the try.
Three successful penalties from the Edinburgh winger followed, with a Christian Leali’ifano penalty getting Samoa on the board in the first half.
Samoa’s defence held firm in the latter stages as they pushed to get back into the game and Sama Malolo’s try – converted by Alai D’Angelo Leuila – put the cat among the pigeons.
However, Argentina, who finished fourth at the 2015 World Cup but failed to get out of the pool stage in Japan four years ago, held on and wrapped up the win through Nicolas Sanchez’s penalty.
The loss to England presented the possibility of another early exit but securing the points here gives them hope of continuing on and they now face South American rivals Chile in Nantes next Saturday.
Samoa, meanwhile, will now need results against potentially both Japan and England if they are to build on their winning start against Chile.
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Yeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
Go to commentsDan Carter is the leading points scorer and leading points per game person for a player with significant tests. 2s RWC winner and member of the games greatest ever team. It's not even close. The only question of GOAT for rugby is whether McCaw deserves it given Carter's numbers.
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