Rugby Championship Review - Argentina 17 - 54 Australia

My preview for this game was all about pressure, and how both sides would be feeling it despite this game very much being the ‘undercard’ for the day, with South Africa and New Zealand playing out an absolute ripper of a game at Ellis Park.  The problem is though for emerging sides, is that they’re not used to pressure.  People can talk plenty of crap about the Pumas always being a dangerous side, but the reality is that rugby is still a growing sport in the country and that they’ve never been a top 4 side.  They’re best performances have come when nobody expected them to deliver – think of when they beat England at Twickenham, Wales at the Millennium Stadium, or played any game in the 2007 World Cup.  Unlike the Wallabies, who are expected to perform to a high standard when they take the field – even when this isn’t a vintage Australian team – the Pumas simply aren’t used to being favourites, and the question surely remains about how they handle that expectation.

The answer to that question was, sadly for the hosts, answered pretty emphatically and – to the relief of all Wallaby fans – quickly.  Many sides have found out how difficult it is to win in Rosario when you go behind early, but the visitors had no such problems as they surged into an early lead, with the superb Israel Folau collecting a smart offload from Joe Tomane to stroll over in the corner.  The noisy crowd were shell shocked, but soon found their voice again as the Pumas resorted to asserting themselves in the scrum.

I say scrum, I mean scrums.  8 of them to be precise, taking up a good 10 minutes of the first half in a period of relentless physical pressure that saw James Slipper sent to the sin bin.  Unbelievably, though, the visitors managed to hold the South Americans out and escaped without conceding when Juan Manuel Leguizamon lost control at the back of the scrum.  It was to prove to be a major psychological blow to the hosts, as the Wallabies pack gained confidence from the exchange, and after Nicholas Sanchez and Christian Leali’ifalo exchanged penalties, things got even worse for the Pumas.

Pablo Matera – the young flanker who has been a standout performer for the Argentines – was shown a yellow card for a clumsy, no-armed tackle on the excellent Scott Fardy and, after Leali’ifano had slotted the 3 pointer, Folau and Will Genia set up Adam Ashley Cooper for a try in the corner.  Two minutes later, and the men in gold were at it again, as Folau slipped clean through the Pumas defence and stepped Juan Martin Hernandez for a superb solo try.

The hosts just simply had to score next, with the score at 25 – 3, and they duly obliged, with Leguizamon offloading well to centre Marcelo Bosch, and the new Saracens man carved through the defence and gave Folau a taste of his own medicine with a great step to score under the sticks.  It meant the visitors held a 25 – 10 lead at the break, but the Pumas knew that, if they could score next, they were in with a shot.

Unfortunately, that never looked likely, as the Wallabies turned it on for the first time this Championship.  Within two minutes of the restart, Quade Cooper popped a delightful inside ball to – who else – Izzy Folau, for the full back to claim his hat-trick.  Despite Martin Landajo darting over from short range for the Pumas 6 minutes later, this was now all one-way traffic and a return to the embarrassing opening-round display against South Africa was on the cards.

A man who was displaying class throughout an increasingly inept Puma performance was veteran Felipe Contepomi, but he was left temporarily levelled by a moronic shoulder charge off the ball by Rob Simmons, who more and more seems to be fixated on taking the mantle of ‘Plank’ off Justin Harrison.  Despite being down to 14 men, the Wallabies didn’t falter, and continued to carve through the opposition defence at will, the most spectacular occasion being when Joe Tomane picked up a loose ball and shrugged off 3 tacklers to scorch in from 60 metres.

The game was over as a contest, and still the men in gold kept coming, rubbing salt into the wound as firstly Benn Robinson bundled over from close range, and then Bernard Foley ran in for a debut try under the sticks after Lucas Amarosino had gone close at the other end, only for Tomane to brilliantly counter.  It broke 50 for the visitors, and became their best result ever against the Pumas.  Not something that was really on the cards at the start of the night.

For the Wallabies, the final score of 54 – 17 was a fair reflection of their dominance, and positive note to go out with – maybe the Australians once again mean business.  But for the Pumas, they need to urgently get over this ‘biscuit’ mentality they have at the minute...crumbling under pressure.