CARDIFF, WALES — Any doubts about the difference that regular international competition can mean to a team, and how it is viewed in the world order, were answered in a single match when Argentina beat Wales, 26-12.
Argentina’s first match after its debut season in the Southern Hemisphere’s Rugby Championship saw Los Pumas put on their best performance ever on British soil. Argentina had won in Wales before, 11 years earlier to the day, but that and its victories over England in 2008 and Scotland on four occasions represented Los Pumas picking off of Europe’s low-hanging fruit.
This time, Argentina defeated the reigning European Six Nations champion, and by a margin that in no way flattered Wales.
The difference between previous Argentina teams, which arrived for autumn tests in Europe untried, and the current one, hardened by six matches against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, was not lost on Wales’s interim coach, Rob Howley.
“Their experience and their exposure to the Rugby Championship have taken them to another level,” said Howley, who is filling in while the incumbent, Warren Gatland, scouts players for British and Irish Lions’ tour of Australia next year. “You have to play against the best to learn, and they’ve certainly learned from it.”
Howley said that Wales’s performance had left him “disappointed, frustrated and annoyed.”
“We know we’re a better team than that,” he said.
Wales, though, played as well it was allowed — and Argentina, superior in every department of the game, allowed very little.
When the host led, 12-6, shortly after halftime, the score seemed a total misrepresentation. A 17-point scoring burst by Argentina between the 51st and 59th minutes — a drop goal from outside half Nicolás Sánchez was followed by brilliantly worked tries from wingers Juan Imhoff and Gonzalo Camacho, both converted by Sanchez — restored logic and justice to the scoreboard. Wales never remotely threatened a comeback.
Argentina turned things around without its two most experienced backs. Center Felipe Contepomi, the only player left from Argentina’s previous victory in Wales, and fullback Juan Martín Hernández both left the match Saturday with injuries. “We are all sad for Felipe,” said Argentina coach Santiago Phelan, another veteran of 2001, albeit as a player.Contepomi’s knee injury looked serious enough to cause worries among players of any age — and at 35, there were fears that his could be career-ending.
It all made for a striking beginning to four consecutive weekends of confrontations between Northern and Southern Hemisphere players — for British and Irish players, it also was the start of their campaign to secure places on the Lions squad. For every other team, the four weeks of matches offer a final chance to affect the International Rugby Board’s world rankings before the draw for the 2015 World Cup on Dec. 3.
“We need to be calm and realistic and not get carried away before our next match against France,” said Phelan. The sense of those words was underlined a few hours later as France flattened Australia, 33-6, in Paris. The victory snapped a run of five consecutive losses to the Wallabies, and it lifted France over England among the top four of the world rankings, which will guarantee a top seeding in the 2015 World Cup. (New Zealand, Australia and South Africa are ranked No. 1-3.)
“It is a matter of great pride to beat Australia,” said Pascal Papé, the French caption, who said the whole team was well aware of a 59-16 beating inflicted by the Australians in Paris two years ago. “None of us wanted to relive that, and it made us extra motivated.”
adapted from The New York Times
