Wallaby wing Wendell Sailor scored the first try of the 2003 Rugby World Cup, his 20th minute effort helping Australia to a 24-8 win in the tournament opener at in Sydney.
As with RWC'99, it was not an auspicious opening match, with the sheer magnitude of the occasion seemingly having a detrimental effect on both sets of players in the opening exchanges. Argentina, in particular, were clearly overawed, only playing to their potential in the dying stages when the match was over as a competitive occasion.
The atmosphere at the ground -- so heady for the spectacular opening ceremony -- began to fizzle out once the match settled into its workaday rhythm and was further dissipated by a lengthy break at the beginning of the second half as Australian second rower David Giffin was stretchered from the field after falling awkwardly at the kick-off. Supporters of all nationalities will no doubt wish a speedy recovery to the forward who has been one of his country's key men in recent years.
But despite the gloom engendered by that unfortunate injury, coach Eddie Jones will be relieved to at least begin his campaign on a winning note, however the victory was achieved. Jones had kept his cards close to his chest in the build-up to the tournament, repeatedly telling the many doubters that his side's poor Tri-Nations form meant nothing in the context of the World Cup.
After this showing, there are now even more question marks hanging over the team, with nothing in their game-plan to suggest that they are in contention to lift rugby's greatest prize for an unprecedented third time. But while the alarm bells may be ringing, it is not yet time to abandon the good ship Wallaby, particularly if they can build on the few positives of the match.
As the final scoreline suggests, Australia did excel for brief periods, but despite a surfeit of possession throughout proceedings, they were never able to capitalise on their superiority and play like World Champions.
Time and time again, the ball was whipped out to the wide open spaces in double-quick time, the Wallabies strike-runners tested Argentina's defences to the limit before taking play back in-field and starting all over again with the help of the outstanding back row trio of Lyons, Smith and Waugh. But the breakthroughs that would have seen them grab a handful of tries were few and far between.
The three loose forwards had a massive influence on the Wallabies win, No.8 David Lyons, was in inspired tackle-busting form up the middle of the park, while his partners-in-crime reveled in the multi-phase play created by Australia.
Indeed, it was one of Lyons' barnstorming runs from the back of the scrum which set up Australia's first score, with the Waratahs star taking the direct route through three Argentine tacklers to set up a prime attacking ruck for his team.
With the Pumas' defensive line stretched to breaking point, they crept up over the offside line, the Wallabies were awarded a penalty and Elton Flatley was on target to put his side up by 3-0.
Argentina battled on -- Contepomi missing an ambitious penalty kick some moments later -- but the Pumas found themselves conceding another three points in the 15th minute as the Wallabies seized the initiative.
Admittedly, the Wallabies were helped in no small part by their opposition who were undone by several below-par aspects of their play, most notably Mario Ledesma's continuing inability to find his men in the lineout. Normally an exceptional No.2, the hooker had a match to forget, his set-piece drills disintegrating in the big match occasion.
The lineout was the Pumas' achilles heel, meaning that for long stretches of the match they had to do without primary possession, and with the Wallabies holding sway in most other departments, Argentina found themselves fighting a rear guard action, thus conceding a steady stream of penalties. Even when they did manage to get hold of the ball, poor kicking options by the halfbacks gave it back to the opposition.
Argentina were not even able to consolidate around their much-vaunted scrum, a series of free kicks negating what advantage they should have held in this area and the Pumas pack suffering the ignominy of losing a ball against the head early in the second half.
With Pumas fly-half Felipe Contepomi missing four out of five kicks at goal, it was not a pretty picture for coach Marcelo Loffreda who could be forced to rethink various selections, not least at No.10, with points machine Gonzalo Quesada surely in line for a recall to allow Contepomi to revert to centre.
Contepomi's physical presence would be put to much better use further out, where Argentina suffered most during the match, the Pumas unable to deal convincingly with the muscular running of heavyweight wingers Sailor and Roff and the trickery of Stephen Larkham, the fly-half running rings around a one-paced Argentina back row.
The superiority in this area was apparent in the Wallabies' first try, scored by Sailor in the 20th minute after some great handling by the Australian backline. The move started deep in the Australian half, Roff fielding a kick from Argentina skipper Agustin Pichot and racing down the left hand touchline, combining beautifully with Flatley to keep the ball alive.
With Argentina at sixes and sevens, the ball came back to the right at lightning speed, Sailor showing tremendous close-quarter power to score in the right-hand corner and spark the game into life, much to the delight of the capacity crowd.
With the game all but lost thanks to the damage inflicted by Flatley's boot, Argentina did rally in the dying stages, fullback Ignacio Corleto streaking over for a try in the left-hand corner. After a lengthy wait, the video ref gave the score the thumbs-up, but Contpomi predictably missing the conversion which would have put his side within seven points of their opponents and in with a shout of a bonus point.
But that was rendered irrelevant some minutes later when Joe Roff -- one of Australia's best players on the night -- sliced through the defence to score a great individual try and put the Pumas out of their misery once and for all.
Man of the match: David Lyons (Australia). While Wendell Sailor and Joe Roff proved more than a handful for the Argentine defence, it was No.8 David Lyons (Australia), taking over from injury victim Toutai Kefu, who was Australia's main man, his strong running from the base of the scrum and in broken play causing no end of problems for the Pumas.
Moment of the match: Ignacio Corleto's try was the highlight of the second half, but it was Wallaby wing Wendell Sailor's try which really set the pulse racing, the former Rugby League man crashing over after a superb passage of play which saw Australia mesmerise the Pumas' defence with an end-to-end move.
Villain of the match: The inaugural match of RWC 2003 was a pretty clean affair, Argentina centre Manuel Contepomi's first-half challenge on Wallaby fullback Mat Rogers, and subsequent yellow-carding, the only blot on an otherwise clean copybook.
The teams:
Australia: 1 Alastair Baxter, 2 Brendan Cannon, 3 Bill Young, 4 David Giffin, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 6 George Smith, 7 Phil Waugh, 8 David Lyons, 9 George Gregan (c), 10 Steve Larkham, 11 Joe Roff, 12 Matthew Burke, 13 Elton Flatley, 14 Wendell Sailor, 15 Mat Rogers
Reserves: Matt Cockbain, Matt Giteau, Jeremy Paul, Chris Whitaker, Ben Darwin, Daniel Vickerman, Lote Tuqiri
Argentina: 1 Roberto Grau, 2 Mario Ledesma Arocena, 3 Omar Hasan Jalil, 4 Patricio Albacete, 5 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, 6 Rolando Martin, 7 Santiago Phelan, 8 Gonzalo Longo Elia, 9 Agustin Pichot (c), 10 Felipe Contepomi, 11 Diego Albanese, 12 Manuel Contepomi, 13 Jose Orengo, 14 Jose Nunez Piossek, 15 Ignacio Corleto
Reserves: Martin Durand, Juan Martin Hernandez, Mauricio Reggiardo
Unused: Rimas Alvarez Kairelis, Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, Federico Mendez, Gonzalo Quesada
Attendance: 81350
Referee: Honiss p.
Points Scorers:
Australia
Tries: Sailor W.J. 1, Roff J.W.C. 1
Conv: Flatley E.J. 1
Pen K.: Flatley E.J. 4
Argentina
Tries: Corleto I. 1
Pen K.: Contepomi F. 1
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