Rugby World Cup Third place play-off/ Argentina 34 France 10: It may be remembered as the World Cup where France memorably beat the hot favourites from New Zealand, but it will also be recorded as the World Cup in which the hosts lost three times - twice to their Latin bêtes noires.
All the virtues of this exceptional Argentinian team were on show, as well as most of France's weak points. The Pumas cleared out much better and more effectively, as well as slowing down France's ball or forcing turnovers at the breakdown. Their execution and individual skills were superb, especially in broken play, where their alertness and awareness were French-like.
France ran into a veritable blue-and-white brick wall around the fringes and ultimately Argentina were shown to have the vastly superior backs. Once again, Frédéric Michalak had a mixed bag, the midfield didn't work and Christophe Dominici looked a spent force.
Juan Hernández, though on cruise control and near flawless, for once wasn't their star show. Agustin Pichot darted, probed, mouthed off and generally ran the show like the team's performance conductor he is. Felipe Contepomi revelled in the occasion and helped himself to two of their five tries and 19 points. Both the unheralded Martin Aramburu and Horacio Agulla contributed handsomely.
With some scores to settle from the opening night, with two teams with plenty of pride at stake given France are the hosts and Los Pumas are, well, Los Pumas, and following a war of words in the last few days, it didn't take long for the ill-feeling to rise to the surface; about five minutes in fact for Rodrigo Roncero and Martin Durand in turn to have an off-the-ball scuffle. Both teams seemed to have the old motto of one-in, all-in, and soon Paul Honiss - taking charge of a record 44th test match - was having difficulty keeping controlling.
France began as if intent on atoning for their previous two defeats and in classically French style, Aurelien Rougerie, Clement Poitrenaud and Christophe Dominici twice transferring the ball the width of the pitch. On the second occasion the lively Yannick Nyanga brilliantly linked with Imanol Harinordoquy but his pass to Rougerie was adjudged forward to rule out the try.
An excellent kick by Michalak and a big hit by David Skrela on Martin Aramburu kept France on the front foot. Always looking to offload in the tackle, France were rewarded with a penalty by Jean-Baptiste Elissalde.
Felipe Contepomi drew the sides level off a rare sortie when Jerome Thion played the ball on the ground.
Still, Michalak and Elissalde switched the point of a counterattack superbly for Harinordoquy to run hard and straight, but Raphaël Ibanez's deft offload to Dominici was adjudged marginally forward as Nyanga carried the move on into the corner.
They hammered away through their lineout maul and Ignacio Corleto did enough under Michalak's cross-kick to deny Rougerie.
And then Argentina came alive and took over, suddenly putting pace on the ball when making another sortie downfield. Felipe Contepomi brilliantly kept the ball alive with a one-handed offload behind his back and was on hand to score when Pichot cleverly probed the blind side.
France almost visibly wilted. An Hernandez drop-goal attempt came back off the post, but brilliant counter-rucking enabled Gonzalo Longo to pounce and the 36-year-old Omar Hasan burrowed over. Suddenly it was 17-3 to Argentina and there was only going to be one winner.
Hasan was lucky to stay on the pitch for a high, stiff-arm hit on Thion and France opted to go up the line. Nyanga broke off too soon from a rumbling, well controlled maul and then had the ball pushed from his grasp in the tackle as he went over the line by Aramburu's superb tackle.
Three times France tapped a penalty and mauled, before resorting to a painstaking sequence of pick-and-goes, ironically à la the All Blacks against them in Cardiff.
Running five minutes over time, the half ended with yellow cards for Longo - the Pumas by now were spoiling with impunity - and Ibanez for stamping on him.
The brilliant Corleto countered a chip from Rougerie by handing off Dominici's feeble attempt at a tackle, swivelling to keep the ball alive by passing inside to Manuel Contepomi, who alertly linked with Patricio Albacete for Hernández to fire a superb long, left-to-right pass for Contepomi to put Aramburu over. It was the try of the night.
Leguizamon was binned for a late, high hit on Chabal, but unperturbed, Argentina struck again. Pichot, Felipe Contepomi and Horacio Agulla - the student heading back to his studies who has grown stronger by the game - probed the blindside off turnover ball inside their 22. Agulla stepped out of Remy Martin's attempted tackle, made ground and passed inside to Corleto, who sprinted all the way from halfway to score in the corner.
Brief respite for the French came by way of Poitrenaud's tackle after Harinordoquy and Chabal had put them on the front foot but Argentina had the final say.
Leguizamon, now on a crusade to cut France apart single-handedly with his dynamic ball carrying, cut through, and though Hernández slipped and was held up just short, Felipe Contepomi stepped in as a close-range first receiver off the recycle to score.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 18 mins: Elissalde pen, 3-0; 21: F Contepomi pen, 3-3; 28: Contepomi try and con, 3-10; 32: Hasan try, F Contepomi con, 3-17. (Half-time 3-17); 53: Aramburu try, 3-22; 65: Corleto try, 3-27; 69: Poitrenaud try, Beauxis con, 10-27; 77: F Contepomi try and con, 10-34.
FRANCE: C Poitrenaud; A Rougerie, D Marty, D Skrela, C Dominici; F Michalak, J-B Elissalde; J-B Poux, R Ibanez (capt), P de Villiers; L Nallet, J Thion; Y Nyanga, T Dusautoir, I Harinordoquy. Replacements: S Bruno for Nyanga (half-time to 50 mins) and for Ibanez (50 mins), R Martin for Dusautoir (51 mins), P Mignoni for Elissalde (55 mins), S Chabal for Thion (61 mins), L Beauxis for Marty (65 mins), V Clerc for Rougerie (67 mins). Not used: P de Villiers. Sinbinned: Ibanez (40 mins).
ARGENTINA: I Corleto; F Aramburu, M Contepomi, F Contepomi, H Agulla; J Hernández, A Pichot (capt); R Roncero, A Basualdo, O Hasan; R Alvarez Kareilis, P Albacete; M Durand, J M Fernandez Lobbe, G Longo. Replacements: J M Leguizamon for Durand, H Senillosa for M Contepomi (both 60 mins), E Lozada for Alvarez Kareilis (70 mins), F Todeschini for Corleto (74 mins), N Fernandez Miranda for Pichot (75 mins), M Ayerza for Roncero (77 mins). Not used: M Ayerza. Sinbinned: Longo (40 mins), Leguizamon (63 mins).
Referee: Paul Honiss(New Zealand).
