Invercargill: Argentina scored four tries in the first 30 minutes to overwhelm Romania 43-8 Saturday, showing plenty of the attacking flair it lacked in its opening loss to England.
In the last of three World Cup matches played at Rugby Park Stadium, New Zealand's southernmost city turned on its best spring weather — sunny but cool — and its most vocal crowd highlighted by singing, chanting South Americans enjoying the Pumas' win.
Argentina dominated the setpiece and breakdown despite losing to England 13-9 last week. The Pumas pack dominated Romania, but this time the backline unleashed some potent attack to lead 26-8 by halftime.
It was Argentina's eighth win in a row in tests against Romania. Santiago Fernandez, Juan Manuel Leguizamon, Juan Figallo and Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino scored the first-half tries, converting a glut of possession into points. In the second half, replacements Juan Jose Imhoff and Genaro Fessia added Argentina's fifth and sixth tries.
Centre Martin Rodriguez kicked five conversions and a penalty for 13 points. Winger Iionel Cazan scored the lone try for Romania, while Tiberius Dimofte kicked a penalty.
Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, standing in for injured Argentina skipper Felipe Contepomi, said the performance was ‘patchy' at times, but he was still pleased with the mental boost it will provide. "The idea was to have a good game for us, to have a win, but also to have a game plan that gave us confidence," Fernandez Lobbe said.
He thought there was room for improvement ahead of Argentina's next match September 25 against Scotland.
Little bit messy
"I thought sometimes we went away from our game plan and we tried to throw the ball around without doing the basics well, and it got a little bit messy," he said. "But when we got back to our system it was a good, good performance."
Romania, which lost 34-24 to Scotland in its first Pool B match, should have known they were in for a rough afternoon when Legiuzamon ran straight over Florin Surugui, knocking the Romanian scrumhalf onto his back, as he barged over in the 8th minute for the Pumas' second try.
It wasn't pretty for the rest of the half, either, with Romania forced to make 62 tackles against Argentina's 20. And Romania missed 13 tackles along the way trying to stop the relentless Argentinians, much to the delight of their fans in the crowd, some wearing large puma heads and blue-dyed wigs.
The Romanians weren't helped when prop Mihaita Lazar was yellow carded in the 54th minute, giving Argentina a one-man advantage for ten minutes in the second half. Argentine hooker Mario Ledesma set a national World Cup record by playing his 15th match. He previously shared the record with Agustin Pichot and Contepomi.
