A Clinical Argentina "dominated" against Samoa on Friday at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard to secure a well-deserved and hard-fought 19-10 win in extreme conditions.
Argentina started the match playing confident attacking rugby which resulted in Emiliano Boffelli scoring a well-worked try in the corner to take an early 07-00 lead. Emiliano Boffelli added a converted penalty to increase Argentina's lead to 10-00 in wet and testing conditions after twenty-five minutes of play in the first half.
Thereafter, the two teams converted a penalty each to go into the second half with Argentina leading 13-03.
Emiliano Boffelli added a converted penalty during the early minutes of the second half to increase Argentina's lead to 16-03 with twenty-eight minutes still to play.
Thereafter Samoa launched wave after wave of attacks on the Argentina tryline until Sama Malolo barged his way over Argentina's tryline. Argentina led 16-10 with five minutes to play and all to play for.
However, Argentina took back control in the dying minutes and Nicolas Sanchez secured the well-deserved 19-10 win for Argentina with a converted penalty with two minutes still left to play in the second half.
Scorers:
Argentina: Try: Emiliano Boffelli. Conversion: Emiliano Boffelli. Penalties: Emiliano Boffelli (3), Nicolas Sanchez.
Samoa: Try: Sama Malolo. Conversion: Christian Leali'ifano. Penalty: Christian Leali'ifano
Teams:
Argentina: 1 Thomas Gallo, 2 Julian Montoya (c), 3 Eduardo Bello, 4 Guido Petti Pagadizabal, 5 Matias Alemanno, 6 Pablo Matera, 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 10 Santiago Carreras, 11 Mateo Carreras, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 13 Matías Moroni, 14 Emiliano Boffelli, 15 Juan Cruz Mallia. Replacements: 16 Sama Malolo, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Francisco Gómez Kodela, 19 Pedro Rubiolo, 20 Rodrigo Bruni, 21 Tomas Cubelli, 22 Nicolas Sanchez, 23 Lucio Cinti.
Samoa: 1. James Lay, 2 Seilala Lam, 3 Paul Alo-Emile, 4 Brian Alainu'u'ese, 5 Chris Vui (c), 6 Theo McFarland, 7 Fritz Lee, 8 Steven Luatua, 9 Jonathan Taumateine, 10 Christian Leali'ifano, 11 Ben Lam, 12 Tumua Manu, 13 Ulupano Junior Seuteni, 14 Nigel Ah-Wong, 15 Duncan Paia'aua. Replacements: 16 Sama Malolo, 17 Charlie Faumuina, 18 Michael Alaalatoa, 19 Taleni Junior Agaese Seu, 20 Sa Jordan Taufua, 21 Melani Matavao, 22 Alai D'Angelo Leuila, 23 Danny Toala.