TEARS FLOW AS WALES BOW OUT
Emotions run wild for Argentina but for Gatland’s old guard...
THE Stade Velodrome filled with tears. Tears of despair for the Welsh. Tears of regret after losing their hold on the match and tears of sorrow as their generation of warriors bowed out.
For Argentina they were tears of joy. Tears of relief after their first-half hammering and tears of elation as they and their supporters turned the stands into what felt like the Buenos Aires carnival.
The stadium shook when Nicolas Sanchez intercepted Sam Costellow’s pass and sprinted 40 metres to snatch victory in the 76th minute. A try that will define careers. The South Americans jumped and chanted and flew whatever belongings they had into the darkening Marseille sky.
This was billed as the undercard quarter-final. It was the first time that a last-eight match featured two teams ranked outside the top five, but what it lacked in quality it made up for in emotion and intensity.
The Welsh were banged up, battered and bruised. Dan Biggar hobbled his way through his match in Welsh colours. For years they have prided themselves on their bloody mindedness but eventually their resistance was broken.
It is a rarity that the Welsh national anthem is out-sung but that was the case. The Argentinians, a stylish, jewelled-up bunch, arrived here in force. It felt like a South American takeover on European shores. They were noisy as hell.
And in the early exchanges, Argentina looked just as flash on the pitch. They broke through the Welsh defence with dummies and offloads. They recycled the ball at speed and had their army of supporters bouncing.
The Welsh, in contrast, were a bit more gruff. Their supporters were nervous, six pints deep to take the edge off, with leeks thrown over their shoulders. But they are tough, no-nonsense and iron-willed. They rode out the early siege, watching Emiliano Boffelli’s first shot at goal miss the target.
Josh Adams hustled the ball out of contact as Wales’ tackle count hit 30 in the opening 10 minutes. Their old dogs stepped up. This was Biggar, George North and Gareth Davies’ third World Cup quarter-final in a row and they linked up for the opening try.
A three-phase strike play from the scrum, North used all his might to break the line, offloading from the deck to Davies, who sent Biggar clear under the posts.
Biggar played right to line, feeling the shoulder of Marcos Kremer more than once. He spread the ball wide and used delayed passes to split open the defence.
They made gains out wide through Louis Rees-Zammit and Liam Williams slipped between tackles. They should have banked more points but their lineout malfunctioned. Biggar edged Wales to a 10-point lead at the end of the first quarter but they failed to pull away.
Referee Jaco Peyper limped off after 15 minutes and the Pumas clawed their way back with six points from Boffelli. Adams dodged a yellow card for a cheap shot on Tomas Cubelli in the final play of the half and Wales walked into the changing room ruing their missed opportunities.
At half-time, Wales changed their peeling shirts and they changed their hooker. First the numbers came off, then the wheels came off.
Argentina started with another early surge and within minutes the deficit was cut to one point, before Boffelli kicked another from 55 metres to give his side the lead.
Nick Tompkins knocked the ball on in midfield and the Welsh looked shell-shocked. All of a sudden they were camped in their own half. They hit back, with Tomos Williams joining from the bench, before striking down the side off the ruck to score.
Biggar ran a dummy support line and, exploiting the lack of guard defenders, Williams was under the posts in a flash.
But Wales ran out of luck. Liam Williams limped off injured and Rees-Zammit was forced to fill in at full-back.
He unleashed his first clearance kick dead and it gifted position back to Argentina. The Welsh were under siege, again.
Guido Petti was cleared for smashing his shoulder into Tompkins’ head as the Wales centre was sent for a head injury assessment. Sam Costellow was chucked in to cover the midfield and Wales finally broke.
And then, after three consecutive driving lineouts, replacement prop Joel Sclevi wrestled over to score.
The carnival felt like it had started all over again. Rees-Zammit was tackled into touch before Biggar walked off with the look of a man who knew his career was closing in on him.
Costellow has been hailed as his long-term successor but the handover began disastrously as his pass was intercepted by Sanchez. And Boffelli sealed it with a penalty in the final play, as the Velodrome bowl simmered down into a melting pot of emotion.