Seventh heaven for Argentina
Three tries in 10 minutes at the start of the second half put any hopes of another World Cup shock to bed at Kingsholm l ast night as Gloucester witnessed an Argentinian invasion.
Georgia more than held their own in the first half, rattling Argentina’s usually reliable scrum to go into the break just five points behind.
But anxiety among the sizeable Argentinian support eased as a yellow card for Georgia’s captain Mamuka Gorgodze sparked the match into life with Tomas Cubelli, Juan Imhoff and Santiago Cordero all scoring converted tries shortly afterwards to leave Georgia 26 points adrift.
The f i rst of Argentina’s seven tries came as intricate hands from the Argentina backs got them within five metres on the left wing and by the time they had swung it back right the sheer weight of numbers on the overlap gave second row Tomas Lavanini an easy finish in the corner. Nicolas Sanchez missed the chance to put Argentina 10-0 up with the conversion and within minutes Georgia were within a point.
Another scrum lost on their own feed resulted in a penalty that Merab Kvirikashvili slotted over and he was at it again when Sanchez was deemed to have obstructed his path chasing his own kick. Kviri kashvili and Sanchez ( 2) exchanged penalties as Georgia went into the break the happier of the two.
But the energy that marked Argentina’s outstanding start against New Zealand at the weekend was back in a frenetic opening 10 minutes to the second half that settled the match.
Saracens centre Marcelo Bosch looked to have wasted a glorious chance to score but Gorgodze illegally prevented the ball from being recycled and, as he was still walking back to the sin-bin, scrumhalf Cubelli had scored off the back of the resulting scrum.
In Gorgodze’s absence, the Argentina backs showed their blistering pace with wings Imhoff and Cordero both finishing off fine moves.
replacement scrum-half Martin Landajo secured the bonus point before t he brilliant Cordero added his second late on to add gloss to the scoreline, with Imhoff also claiming his second.
Argentina, who are likely to meet Ireland or France in the quarter-finals, now have a nine- day rest before facing Tonga.