It was a pity. Because it could have been a tie if Nico Sánchez converted a penalty that passed very close to both posts, and because it could have been a victory in a furious escape from Mateo Carreras, who found a tackle on the last Englishman left on the field. It could have been, but it wasn’t: The Pumas lost 26-23 against England and were left with that thorn: that of being one step away from repeating the third place in 2007. Finally, they equaled the 2015 mark. It is a detail in the framework of another great World Cup, which homologates and strengthens the importance of Argentine rugby in the international concert.
The match had nothing to do with the one that crossed them more than a month ago, in the debut of the World Cup, when in Marseille, England beat the Argentine team 27-10. Yesterday, not only did the image and correlation of forces of Los Pumas change, but no one will be able to say that they did not leave everything at the Stade de France in Paris.
The match started with a fired-up England, who at 13 minutes were already up 13-0 as a result of two penalties by their flyhalf Owen Farrell and the try scored by Ben Earl. The Argentine team felt the blow and came out to respond with the vehemence of their forwards and trying to play in the opposite field.
Thus came a penalty from Emiliano Boffelli and when the first half was closing a very good collective play that ended up capitalizing with a great try from scrum-half Tomás Cubelli. That comeback caused Los Pumas to go down 10-16 at halftime and dream of turning the result around.
In the second half the national team started hitting with a try from Santiago Carreras who escaped through the center of the field and dove under the goal, although the joy of taking the lead in the score was short-lived because England responded quickly with a conquest of Theo Dan.
As the minutes passed, the Pumas gained a foothold in the game and were within striking distance of England on the scoreboard: in this way they reached the last 12 minutes just three points behind on the scoreboard. With five minutes left, the entered fly-half Nico Sánchez had the opportunity with a very cornered penalty that ended up going wide. The Pumas pushed with their forwards and were close to the rival ingoal with Mateo Carreras’ shot that attacked. Then, the game faded until the English closed out the match and took the bronze medal.
Yesterday’s match marked the farewell of Agustín Creevy from La Plata, who played his 108th game with the light blue and white jersey, of which he was captain in 51 of them. Meanwhile, the Tucumán flyhalf Nicolás Sánchez, Tomás Cubelli, Juan Imhoff and Francisco Gómez Kodela could also have completed their last matches in the team.
Cheika disappointed: is he staying or leaving?
The Australian coach of Los Pumas, Michael Cheika, was “very disappointed” by the 26-23 defeat against England and did not reveal whether he will continue to lead the Argentine team.
“I have no idea, I haven’t even thought about it,” he responded, still on the pitch, when asked if it had been his last game as coach of Los Pumas.
“I will go to Argentina and we will talk (with the UAR leadership) about how things have gone and the future. Although that’s not really what I’m thinking about. I’m very disappointed for everyone, for our fans, for our people. I think we deserved to win tonight, but for one reason or another we didn’t make it,” he explained. And he added about Argentina’s World Cup participation: “We have had a good tournament and the players deserved better tonight. I am disappointed with the way the match developed, also because of the refereeing performance. Our players worked hard for two years to achieve something here. “These kids deserved more than what they got.”