France claimed their place in the World Cup semi-finals on Sunday when they quelled a valiant Argentina side to win a try-filled quarter-final 47-26 at Lansdowne Road.
France raced into a 17-0 lead before Argentina battled back to trail just 30-26, only for the greater freshness of Jean-Claude Skrela's side to show in the final 10 minutes.
Winger Philippe Bernat-Salles and full-back Xavier Garbajosa scored two tries apiece as France touched down five times in all, with fly-half Christophe Lamaison landing 22 points with the boot. France face the winners of the New Zealand-Scotland quarter-final in the last four.
Argentina, for whom scrum-half Agustin Pichot was outstanding, took great credit for their fightback though and could have scored more than their two tries by Pichot and captain Lisandro Arbizu. Skrela's much-criticised team showed none of their early tournament rustiness as first Carbajosa and then Bernat-Salles, after a thrilling move, touched down to help France into a 17-0 lead after 12 minutes.
Argentina, surprise conquerors of Ireland in the quarter-final play-offs, were stung into action and Pichot, at fault for the first French try, nipped over down the blind side to reduce the arrears. Gonzalo Queseda converted and then put over another penalty to make it 17-10.
But Emile Ntamack restored French dominance immediately with a score after charging down Arbizu's kick. With Lamaison kicking five successful kicks out of five France led 27-10 before Queseda's second penalty and then a fine converted Arbizu try, following a missed tackle by Ntamack, hauled Argentina back to within seven points.
The second period began in bruising fashion with the Argentines clearly pumped up by their fightback. Argentine prop Mauricio Reggiardi was substituted by Argentina coach Alex Wyllie immediately after smashing a forearm into Richard Dourthe's face, for which he earned a yellow card.
Quesada and Lamasion exchanged penalties and both sides went close to scoring with the darting Pichot in particular catching the eye. But Argentina suffered a hammer blow on the hour when Queseda, the tournament's leading points scorer with 102, was forced off injured.
Trailing 30-23 the South Americans dug deep and began to dominate, with Pichot at the centre of everything. Replacement kicker Felipe Contepomi cut the gap to four points with 10 minutes left from in front of the posts after series of bone-juddering charges by the Pumas. Lamaison settled the French with a booming 45-metre penalty to make it 33-26 and Argentina's granite-like defence finally cracked.
Olivier Magne roared down the left and the ball was spread wide for Garbajosa to suck in the tacklers and pass inside for Bernat-Salles to grab his second. Lamaison converted and France led 40-26 before Dourthe kicked for Carbajosa to gallop in and complete his brace with two minutes left. Lamaison converted imperiously to seal a convincing, if belated, victory.
The Teams:
Argentina: 1 Roberto Grau, 2 Mario Ledesma Arocena, 3 Mauricio Reggiardo, 4 Alejandro Allub, 5 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, 6 Rolando Martin, 7 Santiago Phelan, 8 Gonzalo Longo Elia, 9 Agustin Pichot, 10 Gonzalo Quesada, 11 Diego Albanese, 12 Lisandro Arbizu (c), 13 Eduardo Simone, 14 Gonzalo Camardon, 15 Ignacio Corletto
Reserves: Agustin Canalda, Manuel Contepomi, Felipe Contepomi, Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, Lucas Ostiglia, Miguel Ruiz, Martin Scelzo
France: 1 Cedric Soulette, 2 Raphael Ibanez (c), 3 Franck Tournaire, 4 Abdelatif Benazzi, 5 Olivier Brouzet, 6 Marc Lievremont, 7 Olivier Magne, 8 Christophe Juillet, 9 Fabien Galthie, 10 Christophe Lamaison, 11 Philippe Bernat-Salles, 12 Richard Dourthe, 13 Emile Ntamack, 14 Christophe Dominici, 15 Xavier Garbajosa
Reserves: David Auradou, Arnaud Costes, Marc Dal Maso, Pieter De Villiers, Stephane Glas, Ugo Mola, Stephane Castaignede
Attendance: 40000
Referee: Bevan d
Points Scorers:
Argentina
Tries: Arbizu L. 1, Pichot A. 1
Conv: Quesada G. 2
Pen K.: Contepomi F. 1, Quesada G. 3
France
Tries: Bernat-Salles P. 2, Garbajosa X. 2, Ntamack E. 1
Conv: Lamaison C. 5
Pen K.: Lamaison C. 4
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