2023-09-10 08:11:50
Los Pumas’ debut in the World Cup started well, but ended very badly. In fact, it ended much worse than expected before the game. And much worse than what the start offered, when Emiliano Bofelli took the opportunity to open the scoring with a penalty after a clash of heads between Juan Cruz Mallía and Tom Curry, which earned the Englishman his expulsion. Just three minutes in, the Argentine team was ahead and with one more player. However, everything collapsed as time went by.
The final score demonstrates that collapse: a 27-10 for England, led by a masterful George Ford, author of all his team’s points. The Pumas were only able to score a try in the final minute, through Rodrigo Bruni.
Despite the doubts after the humiliating defeat against Fiji in the last preparation match (30-22), the team coached by Steve Borthwick gave a lesson in survival, outnumbered almost the entire match, but with a very inspired Ford with the foot, with three drops (all in the first half) and six penalties scored. The English coach had warned in the preview: “We have the feeling that they buried us too quickly.”
The Argentine team has time to react, since the result should not be decisive and, under normal conditions, they should qualify for the quarterfinals, where they would meet Australia or Wales, two teams in low times, unless Fiji surprises.
But yesterday’s image was very disappointing: erratic and undisciplined in defense and without offensive ideas, at no time was numerical superiority seen in the game. On the contrary, it seemed that those who played with 14 were Los Pumas, much inferior both in the dead balls of the game and in movement.
Curry was a victim of the so-called “bunker rule”, implemented in this World Cup after being tested in other minor tournaments, by which the video referee (TMO) has 10 minutes of a temporary suspension to analyze a foul and decide if the yellow card is seen. by the offender it becomes a red one.
England was left with 14 and Argentina was left without its fullback, Mallía, replaced by Matías Moroni due to the protocol in case of concussion. However, the English maintained discipline and punished every mistake by Los Pumas.
After registering their twentieth defeat in 26 games against the English, next Friday, September 22, in Saint Etienne, Michael Cheika’s men have no margin for error against Samoa. A win will put them back on the path to the quarterfinals. A defeat would almost be a sentence to repeat the forgettable performance of the last World Cup.
Cheika: “Everything went wrong”
The coach of Los Pumas, Michael Cheika, was clear when analyzing the disappointing game that led the Argentines to lose 27-10 against England in the rugby world premiere: “Practically everything that could go wrong did go wrong” .
“I think we let the game stop and restart too much. “England took advantage of the circumstances very well and all the credit goes to them,” she analyzed at a press conference.
“Practically everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” said the Australian after surely the worst performance by Los Pumas since the veteran coach led them.
Cheika, however, tried to look forward: “The world has not ended. We still have a chance to qualify. Our players will learn a lot from this experience. “We have a lot of rookie players in World Cup matches and they will learn a lesson on how we should be prepared when the time comes.”
The captain, Julián Montoya, agreed with his coach. “It wasn’t the game we wanted, but we lost against a very good England team who did a lot of things well,” he said.
More critical was the fullback Juan Cruz Mallía, who was only on the pitch for three minutes due to the blow to the head by Tom Curry, so the English played 77 minutes in inferiority: “We went out to speculate and that can’t happen to us again” , he declared with a bandage on his head.
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