Wales 33-16 Argentina
53,082 saw Wales beat Argentina at the Millennium Stadium
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Saturday, 21, Nov 2009 03:54
By Tom Powell.
A much improved Wales brushed aside a disappointing Argentina in a 33-16 victory at the Millennium Stadium.
After last week's unconvincing showing against Samoa the hosts were much more ruthless in attack as they ran in three tries.
After running England close last week Argentina will be disappointed with their performance which saw Martin Rodriguez grab all their points.
The hosts led 13-3 at the break with Stephen Jones grabbing all his side's points with Wales enjoying an easy ride against a none threatening Argentina side.
The visitors threatened to make a game of it after the break but two Shane Williams scores made it an easy afternoon for the men in red.
Wales reverted back to the side that narrowly lost to New Zealand with just centre Jonathan Davies in place of the injured Tom Shanklin.
Argentina on the other hand made two changes from the side that lost 16-9 at Twickenham last weekend, Mariano Sambucetti and Agustin Figuerola in for Esteban Lozada and Alfredo Lalanne.
The Welsh backs looked dangerous early on, with Williams finding a gap in the Argentina back line, but the visitors recovered and cleared their lines.
But the hosts had the lead a few minutes later after the Argentina forwards were penalised at the breakdown and Stephen Jones slotted the resulting penalty.
Quick thinking from Jones in the 17th minute brought the first try of the match.
The fly-half took a quick tap penalty and dived over in the corner as Argentina were lining up to face an expected penalty kick following Roncero's use of hands in the ruck. Jones picked himself up and added the extras to make it 10-0.
It took the visitors until the 30th minute to find their way into the Welsh half and they could have left with three points.
However, Martin Rodriguez's penalty struck the upright and Wales averted the danger.
The centre had better luck with his second shot at goal six minutes later to make it 10-3 after the Welsh forwards had collapsed a scrum.
But in the dying seconds of the first half Jones stepped up to kick his second penalty to give Wales a 13-3 half-time lead.
It took Wales just 22 seconds to stretch their lead in the second half with Williams dancing over for his first try.
The winger picked up the loose ball after Luke Charteris had charged down Figuerola's box kick before beating two defenders and touching down. Jones added the extras to make it 20-3.
An error from the restart allowed Rodriguez to kick a simple penalty from just outside the 22 and get Argentina back in the contest.
Jones had the chance to restretch Wales' lead but pulled his kick wide of the uprights after Martin Scelzo had given away a penalty.
Rodriguez was finding his form with the boot and further clawed his side back into the contest with his third penalty after Charteris had been penalised.
The Argentina comeback was halted by Halfpenny who struck a penalty from just inside the opposition half after Gonzalo Tiesi had held on at a ruck. Wales led 23-9 15 minutes into the second half.
Much like last week Wales were the architects of their own downfall, gifting Argentina a try with 20 minutes to go.
A quick line out found its way to Davies whose kick was charged down, scooped up and run in by Rodriguez, the try scorer adding the extras to make it 23-16.
A piece of magic wrapped the game up for Wales, however, as Williams did what only he can to score under the posts.
Fernandez Lobbe fly hacked through into the grateful arms of Williams on the half way line. The winger sped through a gap in the Argentina defence and rounded Horacio Agulla to touchdown. Jones's conversion made it 30-16.
The visiting pack were tiring and another infringement at a scrum allowed Halfpenny to grab his second penalty of the afternoon to stretch the lead further.
If anyone was going to score again it was the home side but they settled for what they had to record a comfortable 33-16 win.