Argentina score nine tries to beat Namibia 64-19

Namibia bow out of their fifth World Cup without a win.

ARGENTINA prepared for next Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final against France or Ireland by scoring nine tries in an comfortable Pool C win over Namibia.

The Pumas, already qualified, secured a bonus point before the break with tries by Juan Martin Hernandez, Matias Moroni, Horacio Agulla and Facundo Isa.

Lucas Nogueira, Matias Alemanno, Leonardo Senatore, Julian Montoya and Tomas Cubelli added further tries.

Namibia’s three tries came from Johan Tromp, JC Greyling and Eugene Jantjies.

Argentina finished second in the pool on 15 points, four behind pool winners New Zealand.

Namibia bow out of their fifth World Cup without a win.

Can Argentina surprise the heavyweights?

On this evidence, neither France nor Ireland will fancy facing the Pumas at the Millennium Stadium next weekend.

Argentina named their youngest World Cup starting XV for 16 years yet showed no mercy as they demolished Namibia, who had secured their first ever World Cup point in their previous outing.

This was not Daniel Hourcade’s strongest side, the head coach likely to recall his influential and experienced players for next weekend, yet they still managed to score more points against Namibia than world champions New Zealand managed last month.

Namibia struggled to cope with Argentina’s pace and Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino almost scored one of the tries of the tournament after a great turn of speed before eventually being stopped.

Argentina football legend Diego Maradona, who danced in the changing room following last week’s defeat of Tonga, said he will return if the Pumas make the semi-finals.

Based on this performance, Ireland or France will have their work cut out to prevent that.

Teams

Argentina: Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino; Matias Moroni, Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, Juan Pablo Socino, Horacio Agulla; Juan Martin Hernandez, Martin Landajo; Lucas Noguera, Julian Montoya, Juan Pablo Orlandi, Guido Petti, Matias Alemanno, Pablo Matera, Javier Ortega Desio, Facunda Isa.

Replacements: Agustin Creevy, Marcos Ayerza, Ramiro Herrera, Leonardo Senatore, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Tomas Cubelli, Marcelo Bosch, Juan Imhoff.

Namibia: Chrysander Botha; Johan Tromp, JC Greyling, Johan Deysel, Conrad Marais; Theuns Kotze, Damian Stevens; Jaco Engels, Torsten Van Jaarsveld, Johan Coetzee, Tijuee Uanivi, Janco Venter, Rohan Kitshoff, Wian Conradie, Leneve Damens.

Replacements: Louis van der Westhuizen, Johnny Redelinghuys, Abel de Klerk, Renaldo Bothma, Tinus Du Plessis, Russell van Wyk, Eugene Jantjes, Heinrich Smit.
Argentina (36) 64

Tries: Hernandez, Moroni, Agulla, Matera, Noguera, Alemanno, Senatore, Montoya, Cubelli Con: Gonzalez Iglesias 4, Socino 4 Pen: Gonzalez Iglesias

Namibia (7) 19

Tries: Tromp, Greyling, Jantjies Con: Kotze 2 –BBC