Tired Pumas do just enough

RUGBY/Argentina 19 Scotland 13:As was right and fitting, Argentina duly reached their first ever semi-final of a World Cup and next Sunday they will meet the Springboks. On the balance of this quarter-final, the world's fourth-ranked side deserved that much, but in keeping with the nature of this extraordinary weekend they were hard-pushed.

Too conservative for their own good, Argentina found it difficult to play against a side who play even less rugby than themselves.

The Pumas tired visibly, underlining the feeling that ultimately - through lack of real depth in albeit a well managed squad - they will run out of steam come next Sunday's rendezvous.

Then again, they will be back in the far more familiar territory of under-dogs, feeding off their us-against-the-world mentality.

Scotland were lamentable, and Lamontable, for much of the first hour before deciding to play some rugby when introducing a quartet of replacements and deciding to play at something resembling a tempo. They got what they deserved.

What little variation or intuitive football there was on offer came exclusively from the Pumas, and Juan Hernández in particular. His astonishing array of kicking ensured the Pumas lorded territory with the pack - in which Gonzalo Longo was again seemingly everywhere - eking out yardage and retaining the ball. There was also the phenomenal work-rate of Agustin Pichot, though he arguably slowed their game down too much when in sight of the finishing line.

"I think we were very tired," conceded the captain, "and Scotland played a very good game, but we stuck with it because we wanted to be in the semi-finals for the first time ever. Scotland played with a lot of pride and passion, and they are in a quarter-final, so respect to them."

Indicative of the heightened patriotic fervour now sweeping France, this quarter-final kicked off to the backdrop of the Parisian crowd singing La Marseillaise. Although, typically, the hosts were out in force to back the competition again, despite the sizeable and vocal Scottish contingent, and the smaller, but noisy Puma support, most present seemed to have merely a passing interest judging by the way increasing silence greeted the longueurs. Then again, the Scots had little to cheer about.

Eight times boot was put to leather in the first two-and-a-half minutes, which rather set the tone for the opening half. Still, even amid his own bombardment of cloud-scraping up-and-unders, there was always Hernández.

Chasing down his opening kick off - no team chases the aerial stuff better - the outhalf picked up Pichot's pass and was only narrowly wide with a drop-goal inside 15 seconds. There was also a volley on the run, when chasing his own chip, as well as a couple of alert quick taps and offloads deep in his own territory, not to mention the occasional blindside darts, shimmies and deft grubbers from Pichot, as the irrepressible Longo led the Pumas pack.

Felipe Contepomi hooked the game's first shy at goal after a 55-metre touchfinder by Hernández. Bogged down in the middle third, fittingly the game's opening score came from almost exactly half-way courtesy of a long-range penalty by Dan Parks (his sixth from six in the tournament) after Mario Ledesma went off his feet at a ruck.

For something different, Hernández ended one bout of aerial ping-pong by running a ball back from inside halfway, and the secondary tackler Nathan Hines was penalised for nearly beheading him. Contepomi exacted retribution with the 45-metre penalty and Argentina began to relax.

Seán Lamont was perhaps a little unlucky Joël Jutge didn't award him a knock-on after a wayward drop-goal attempt by Hernández but was then rightly penalised for a "squeeze ball".

Contepomi made it 6-3.

The Scottish winger then inexplicably stepped outside his 22 before putting the ball out on the full. Although Alister Hogg did tremendously to rip the ball from the Pumas in ensuing rumbles, Longo charged down Dan Parks's relieving kick, followed up and, as the ball squirmed away from Rory Lamont, reacted with no little skill by gathering and touching down in one movement.

Contepomi converted but the Scots, by dint of keeping the ball through more than a phase, earned a penalty when Rodrigo Roncero came in from the side. Paterson took his tally to 16 from 16, making it 13-6 at the break.

Despite Longo brilliantly reclaiming the restart, the half ended with the Pumas suffering the indignity of being pushed off their own scrum ball.

Even so, a trademark maul enabled Contepomi to make it 16-6 soon after the break, and when Parks was short from halfway, the Scots had missed their first kick of the World Cup. It seemed they had nothing else to offer, all the more so when they defended another maul well after a stunning 70-metre touchfinder by Hernández, only for the outhalf to then slot another drop-goal, this time with his left boot.

Cue four replacements for Scottish, who began running the ball from their own territory and were kickstarted into life by a counterattacking run and offload by their talisman Paterson.

Keeping the ball alive in the tackle and going from right touchline to left, two of the subs combined, Kelly Brown probing the blindside and offloading for Chris Cusiter to score.

Running on empty and digging deep, the Pumas' fringe and midfield defence held the Scots out before Parks - perhaps ill-advisedly - kicked high to the corner for Seán Lamont but into touch in goal. Admittedly, as he was all night, the ubiquitous Hernández was there in any case.

Scoring sequence: 17: Parks pen 0-3; 23: F Contepomi pen 3-3; 29: F Contepomi pen 6-3; 33: Longo try, F Contepomi con 13-3; 38: Paterson pen 13-6 (half-time 13-6); 43: F Contepomi pen 16-6; 54: Hernández drop-goal 19-6; 63: Cusiter try, Paterson con 19-13.

ARGENTINA: I Corleto (Stade Français); L Borges (Stade Français), M Contepomi (Newman), F Contepomi (Leinster), H Agulla (Hindu); J Hernandez (Stade Français), A Pichot (Stade Français, capt); R Roncero (Stade Français), M Ledesma (Clermont Auvergne), J Scelzo (Clermont); I Fernandez Lobbe (Sale), P Albacete (Toulouse); L Ostiglia (Agen), J Fernandez Lobbe (Sale), G Longo (Clermont Auvergne). Replacements: R Alvarez Kareilis ( Perpignan) for I Fernandez-Lobbe (50 mins), J-M Leguizamon (London Irish) for Ostiglia (55 mins), O Hasan (Toulouse) for Scelzo (57 mins), H Senillosa (Hindú) for M Contepomi (66 mins). Not used: A Basualdo (Alumni), N Fernandez Miranda (Hindú), F Todeschini ( Montpellier).

SCOTLAND: R Lamont (Sale); S Lamont (Northampton), S Webster (Edinburgh), R Dewey (Ulster), C Paterson (Edinburgh); D Parks (Glasgow), M Blair (Edinburgh); G Kerr (Glasgow), R Ford (Glasgow), E Murray (Northampton); N Hines (Perpignan), J Hamilton (Leicester); J White (Sale, capt), S Taylor (Stade Français), A Hogg (Edinburgh). Replacements: A Henderson (Glasgow) for Dewey (half-time), C Smith (Edinburgh) for Kerr, S MacLeod (Llanelli) for Hamilton, K Brown (Glasgow) for Hogg, C Cusiter (Perpignan) for Blair (all 57 mins), S Lawson (Sale) for Ford, H Southwell (Edinburgh) for R Lamont (both 69 mins).

Referee: J Jutge (France).