Argentina into Rugby World Cup quarter-finals after edging Japan in Nantes thriller

Japan 27 Argentina 39

After a magnificent, breathless match that neither team deserved to lose, Argentina are in the last eight of the Rugby World Cup and Japan are going home.

Mateo Carreras scored a hat-trick as the Pumas set up a meeting with Wales, while the end of the road has arrived for Michael Leitch, and his fellow surviving veterans from the Miracle of Brighton. Another classic has been added to the Brave Blossoms’ CV – but it is Michael Cheika’s dangerous side who roll on to next Saturday’s quarter-final in Marseille.

Tackles were missed, knock-ons proliferated and errors were committed with alarming regularity in the Nantes sunshine. But space was attacked at every opportunity and the percentage plays were uniformly ignored for high-risk, high-excitement rugby. And isn’t that – as opposed to suffocating defence and speculative kicking – what really matters?

Both these inspirational teams kept the ball in hand and the crowd on their feet. The only disappointment is they can’t both be in the quarterfinals.

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The tone had been set by the opening score. Japan failed to deal with an Argentina maul in which the flanker, Pablo Matera, carried with intent. The scrumhalf, Naoto Saito, fell off a tackle, allowing Santiago Chocobares to burst through the defensive line and under the posts. Saito redeemed himself with a spectacular over-the-shoulder kick from hand inside Argentina’s 22, gathered by the fullback Lomano Lemeki, and Leitch soon had a glimpse of the try-line before Saito’s knock-on.

Then came a downright sensational score that will have had fans in Tokyo screaming delightedly at their TVs. The towering figure of Amato Fakatava popped up in space on the left wing, and rather than look for contact, the secondrow chipped over the head of the covering defender, Emiliano Boffelli. The Tonga-born lock snaffled his own kick, cut inside Santiago Carreras and loped over before touching defiantly down. Try of the tournament.

All the signs were of a classic bubbling up, only for the momentum to be slowed by Pieter Labuschagne’s yellow card for a high tackle on Thomas Gallo. The referee, Ben O’Keefe, called on the foul play review officer, who decided there was mitigation for it to stay yellow. Japan were also relieved to see Boffelli miss the resulting penalty.

Rikiya Matsuda’s drop goal attempt was bravely charged down by the openside flanker Marcos Kremer, and a silky Argentina counterattack saw the ball move through the hands of Julián Montoya and Juan Cruz Mallía, before Mateo Carreras sprinted over in the corner. Boffelli snatched at the conversion, although the wing did not err with a penalty five minutes before half-time.

Japan had thus shipped eight points during Labuschagne’s absence, but they would strike back again in similarly thrilling fashion. Siosaia Fifita’s gliding run down the Japan left saw him step silkily inside the cover and offload for Saito, who prompted boisterous celebrations after diving in for their second try. Matsuda clipped the conversion through and it was poised at half-time, Cheika’s men leading by a solitary point at 15-14.

Boffelli was inches from intercepting a Japanese pass following a fine back-of-the-hand offload by Leitch, but some gritty work on the floor by Montoya won a penalty for the Pumas, and they used the resulting platform to score their third try, Mateo Carreras capitalising on a big overlap for his second.

Japan, of course, were unbowed and swiftly had the Pumas under pressure again, Matsuda’s penalty reducing the deficit to five after another well structured attack. Lemeki clearly felt an extra layer of excitement and intrigue was required, and nonchalantly belted over a long-range drop goal to shave Argentina’s lead to two.

The Pumas counterpunched immediately when Mallía sent Boffelli haring over the line in the corner, following a lovely pop pass by Chocobares, and the try-scorer’s conversion bounced in off a post. That made it 29-20 moving into the final quarter. Japan came out swinging. Fifita’s muscular carry set up another assault on the line. Argentina held firm but then a tap penalty saw the replacement wing, Jone Naikabula, nip over in the corner and Matsuda’s dead-eyed conversion made it a two-point game. The Japanese fans – all the fans – were in raptures by this point.

Indiscipline would cost Japan again. Mateo Carreras capitalised on more loose defending to race over for his hat-trick, and Japan had a mountain to climb, even more so when Nicolás Sánchez completed the scoring with a penalty. Japan leave the tournament with pride firmly intact, having made us all smile again. – Guardian