Three tries and 21 points in 12 minutes put Argentina back on course for a quarter-final that seemed in considerable doubt after a first half in which Georgia gave as good as they got and better when it came to the business of push and shove, something at which the Pumas normally revel.
But this was like no other Argentinian World Cup team, even that of 2007, which made it to the semi-finals. Daniel Hourcade’s side like to run and, after 40 minutes of doing the hard graft, that is what they did, running in six of the seven tries in the last 33 minutes. As the Georgia coach, Milton Haig, admitted: “It’s exciting. If you look at Argentine history at World Cups, it’s right up there. We were in there for the first half but first 20 of the second, when we were down to 14 men, was pretty tough. That was the game.”
With Pumas fans singing and dancing their way out of Kingsholm it was hard to think that at half-time people were wondering. Another loss after defeat by the All Blacks would have seen the Pumas, quarter-finalists or better at three of the last four World Cups, looking for help from others.
A mere five points up at half-time and less than comfortable in the close exchanges, where they were 3-0 down in the scrum-penalty count, Argentina made the most eye-catching of starts to the second half. The Saracens centre Marcelo Bosch should have scored after a sizzling break by the fly-half Nicolas Sánchez and Tomas Lavanini was denied his second try by the TMO.
However, Georgia’s captain and inspiration, Mamuka Gorgodze, was heading for the sin bin and in his absence their world fell in. First the scrum half Tomas Cubelli scooted in off the back of a scrum, put away by the long arm of Facundo Isa, the left wing, then Juan Imhoff was given all the space in the world out wide before Santiago Cordero carved his way through the centre off the back of a lineout, side-stepping his way to the posts.
By the time Gorgodze returned Argentina were out of sight, a valuable bonus point in their pocket. Not that the 31-year-old No8 was about to concede he had been in the wrong: “I don’t know that it was a foul, but the ref is always right.”
A close-range addition from the replacement scrum-half, Martin Landajo, a length-of-the-field job from Cordero and Imhoff claiming his second just rubbed it in.
“One week you are celebrating, the next you are brought down to earth,” said Haig, who now has to lift his men for the game of their lives‚ against the All Blacks. “Everyone’s pretty down because they let themselves down but our goal was to qualify automatically for 2019 and we are on track for that.”
After beating Tonga in their opening game Georgia had not been keeping their light under a bushel, Haig, the seemingly obligatory Kiwi on any coaching bench, asking: “If Japan can beat South Africa, why can’t we beat Argentina?” And while that victory over Tonga, their first World Cup win over any side ranked above them, might not have been on the same seismic scale as Japan’s, it did point to the growing strength of Georgian rugby.
Hourcade kept faith in the majority of the players who pushed the All Blacks last Sunday and not so long ago beat South Africa to break their duck in the Rugby Championship, minus the Gloucester lock Mariano Galarza, pending his appeal against a nine-week ban for gouging.
However, if the Shed – decorated blue and white for the day – was looking forward to anything, it was the front rows locking horns. Marcos Ayerza, Augstín Creevy and Tetaz Chaparro versus Mikheil Nariashvili, Jaba Bregvadze and Davit Zirakashvili. They had to wait a minute before Georgia came up with the first penalty of the game but not the first points.
They came from the first drop goal of the tournament, Sánchez’s flick just about wobbling over the bar. However, if life in the Rugby Championship has done anything for the Pumas, it has honed a back line that immediately looked sharp and gave Georgia plenty to think about in the nine minutes before Tomás Lavanini got the try-scoring under way.
Argentina Tuculet; Cordero, Bosch, Hernández (De La Fuente 36), Imhoff; Sanchez (Amorosino 64), Cubelli (Landajo 67); Ayerza (Noguera 67), Creevy (capt, Montoya 63), Chaparro, Alemanno, Lavanini, Leguizamon, Lobbe (Desio 65), Isa.
Tries Lavanini, Cubelli, Imhoff 2, Cordero 2, Landajo. Cons Sánchez 3, Bosch 2. Pens Sanchez 2. Drop goal Sánchez.
Georgia: Kvirikashvili; Mchedlidze, Kacharava, Sharikadze, Aptsiauri; Lobzhanidze, Malaguradze; Nariashvili (Asieshvili 52), Bregvadze (Mamukashvili 51), Zirakashvili (Chilachava 51), Nemsadze, Mikautadze, Tkhilaishvili, Kolelishvili, Gorgodze (capt).
Pens Kvirikashvili 3. Sin-bin Gorgodze 44
Referee JP Doyle (Eng). Att 14,256.
