Los Pumas power past neighbours Chile in all-South American Test

Argentina claimed an impressive 59-5 bonus-point win over Chile in the first-ever all-South American Test at a Rugby World Cup on Saturday.

It was a day to remember for fly-half Nicolas Sanchez who became the second centurion for Argentina, following in the footsteps of Agustin Creevy.  Fittingly it was the veteran playmaker who opened the scoring with a ninth-minute try.

Los Pumas looked to compound the scoreboard through a 12th-minute penalty before the floodgates opened with Juan Martin Gonzalez crossing after a quarter of an hour with Sanchez making no mistake from the tee.  The pivot would be accurate again when converting a Creevy try scored seven minutes later.

Chile did their best to come back into the game but trailed 24-0 at half-time in this one.  Their fortunes remained the same when Martin Bogado scored for Argentina five minutes into the second period with the extras added.

The Chileans thought they had scored against their neighbours minutes later but it was ruled out for a forward pass.  Still, the side pushed for a try but their hopes were dashed when Rodrigo Isgro crossed for a converted try in the 64th minute.

Gonzalez was at the double minutes late with yet another try as Sanchez became the country's all-time leading Rugby World Cup points-scorer with another conversion.

Chile's try would finally come after the backline players joined a maul to eventually rumble over for a five-pointer through Tomas Dussaillant which went unconverted.  That would not be the final say as Argentine star Ignacio Ruiz scored a late try with Santiago Carreras kicking the conversion.

Carreras was involved again only minutes later as he scored right at the death.  The fly-half then stood up to nail the conversion from the touchline to cap off a historic match.

The teams

Argentina:  15 Martín Bogado, 14 Rodrigo Isgro, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Jeronimo de la Fuente (c), 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Tomas Cubelli, 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Eduardo Bello, 2 Agustín Creevy, 1 Joel Sclavi
Replacements:  16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Francisco Gómez Kodela, 19 Matias Alemanno, 20 Joaquín Oviedo, 21 Lautaro Bazan Velez, 22 Santiago Carreras, 23 Juan Cruz Mallia

Chile:  15 Inaki Ayarza, 14 Santiago Videla, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 12 Matias Garafulic, 11 José Ignacio Larenas, 10 Rodrigo Fernandez, 9 Marcelo Torrealba, 8 Raimundo Martínez, 7 Clemente Saavedra, 6 Martín Sigren (c), 5 Javier Eissmann, 4 Santiago Pedrero, 3 Matias Dittus, 2 Augusto Bohme, 1 Javier Carrasco
Replacements:  16 Tomas Dussaillant, 17 Salvador Lues, 18 Esteban Inostroza, 19 Augusto Sarmiento, 20 Alfonso Escobar, 21 Ignacio Silva, 22 Nicolas Herreros, 23 Francisco Urroz

Referee:  Paul Williams (NZR)
Assistant Referees:  Angus Gardner (RA), James Doleman (NZR)
TMO:  Ben Whitehouse (WRU)