Frantic French survive Pumas scare in Rugby World Cup nail-biter
Argentina will now likely need to beat England to avoid an early exit
TOKYO: France uncorked some champagne rugby but almost lost the plot and had to survive a lastgasp penalty before pipping Argentina 23-21 in their World Cup opener yesterday. Fly-half Romain Ntamack paced a mixed French performance with 10 points and the three-time finalists were indebted to a late Camille Lopez drop goal as they won a pulsating Pool C clash in Tokyo, leaving the Pumas staring into the abyss in the tournament’s so-called ‘group of death’.
Argentina, who will now likely need to beat England to avoid an early exit, almost pulled off an astonishing comeback after being sent into battle by an emotional message of support from football legend Diego Maradona.
Trailing by 17 points at half-time, they fell just short after a last-minute penalty from Emiliano Boffelli sailed just wide, allowing France to claim a crucial victory. “I thought the game was finished, I thought we’d lost the game,” admitted France captain Guilhem Guirado, referring to the late penalty Australian referee Angus Gardner awarded to Argentina.
“But I am very, very proud of my boys. It was a tough game tonight but we are very happy to start the competition with a win.” A cagey opening was punctuated by some bone-shuddering tackles from both sides, Argentine fly-half Nicolas Sanchez sent sprawling by prop Jefferson Poirot in a monster collision.
Lock Guido Petti Pagadizabal was a one-man wrecking crew for the Pumas in the early skirmishes and his bulldozing run led to a 15th-minute penalty that Sanchez slotted over to put the 2015 semi-finalists on the board first.
But France hit back quickly through Gael Fickou, who showed great feet to beat two Argentina defenders and score after good work from fellow centre Virimi Vakatawa. The French extended their advantage with another sumptuous try four minutes later when flying winger Damian Penaud caused panic in Argentina’s defence before flipping the ball to Antoine Dupont to crash over.
CARNIVAL ATMOSPHERE Ntamack added a pair of penalties that sent Les Bleus into half-time leading 20-3 and seemingly in control of a bruising game played in a carnival atmosphere. Many travelling fans sported colourful national garb, including a noisy group of French supporters dressed as Gallic roosters.
But Argentina were all business and came out firing in the second half as Petti Pagadizabal marked his 50th cap by trundling over from a driving lineout. Another driving maul allowed Julian Montoya to dive over before a Benjamin Urdapilleta penalty on the hour-mark made it a two-point game.
Urdapilleta stroked another three-pointer to give Argentina the lead with 12 minutes to play, completing a remarkable turnaround. But Lopez dragged France back in front with a superb drop goal in his first involvement after coming on.
Ntamack — who described the game as “stressful” — missed a late penalty before Boffelli hooked his long-range effort wide to spare France’s blushes in an ill-tempered affair which boiled over after the final whistle as fighting broke out between the players.
“You dream of winning with a last-minute kick,” said a crestfallen Boffelli. “We’d killed ourselves for 80 minutes but we got that one opportunity. Obviously a lot of things went through my mind and I didn’t want to have any regrets — now I just want to forget it.” Argentina head coach Mario Ledesma accused Gardner of favouring France with his decisions. “It’s a shame to be refereed like a small nation,” he fumed, left ruing fine margins. “We created many opportunities, scored, missed two points, missed three points in the first half — it comes down to that.” French coach Jacques Brunel shrugged: “We will definitely have to improve if we want to go deeper into the tournament.”