Italy stun Pumas in last minute

[travelling_gerry]

Italy stun Pumas in last minute

From correspondents in Cordoba, Argentina
June 29, 2008 ITALY have stunned Argentina, defeating the Pmumas 13-12 in Cordoba after a last-minute converted try by Leonardo Ghiraldini completed a remarkable second-half fightback in which the visitors scored 10 unanswered points.
But the match was not a great spectacle and the refereeing of Matt Goddard, who gave 30 penalties during the match, caught the eye most.
Argnetina led 12-3 at half-time, courtesy of two penalties each from Juan Martin Hernandez and Marcelo Bosch against one from Andrea Marcato, but the Pumas struggled after losing Hernandez, their star five-eighth, with a wrist injury at the end of the first quarter.
Marcato reduced the deficit to six points of Argentina when he landed his second penalty in the 50th minute, and Bosch then missed two opportunities to regain the nine-point advantage for Argentina.
Argentina paid dearly for those misses when Ghiraldini scored after a scrum and several forward drives, and Marcato, under great pressure, landed the conversion to spark celebrations in the Italy camp.
Agence France-Presse


http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-23217,00.html

[Burgs]

Big ladder result for Italy but, to be fair, apart from being in Argentina it isn't that big of an upset as Argentina are back to their Amatuer basis rather than the side that we saw in France.

[pieter blackie]

I lost some Vcash on this game

[Thequeerone]

wonder if TLH is in hiding !

[Swee_82]

Dodgey-multi is looking good

[jargan83]

i was gonna dump some cash on the dodgy multi but decided against it
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[robyn <3]

whats going on with the pumas? was the rwc fluke or something?

[jargan83]

helps when you have your first choice XV available
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[pieter blackie]

A lot of the Puma players are playing international rugby around the world so I presume that they also did not have there top squad playing Same as with France If you look at the world cup squad and the past weekends players then there are only a few familiar names out there.

[jargan83]

pretty much, and most unfortunately its turning into a similar scenario as to the club vs country that occurs in soccer
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[robyn <3]

are they all playing in europe? thats a shame, they were so good during the rwc...

[pieter blackie]

pretty much, and most unfortunately its turning into a similar scenario as to the club vs country that occurs in soccer
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It is all about money and at the moment some clubs are prepared to pay.

I fully support money rugby. Just look at how big soccer is in Europe, England and even in South America and it is all because of money, publicity and supporters with fire in there blood

[jargan83]

its just a shame when players are from the Pacific islands or Argentina etc and when the player wants to play for their country they get threatened with the sack. That truely sucks, i know it happened at the 2003 world cup, not sure about last year
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[Burgs]

Last year the Clubs were a little more "generous" with their foriegn players during the RWC, hence the improvement especially with los Pumas.
While they are allowed to do it you can't blame the Clubs.
The IRB must move to ensuring a single global season that allows for Country to always get preference over Club, regardless of nationality.

[beige]

its just a shame when players are from the Pacific islands or Argentina etc and when the player wants to play for their country they get threatened with the sack. That truely sucks, i know it happened at the 2003 world cup, not sure about last year
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My understanding is that the situation was a fair bit better last year than it was in 2003 - Romania was a good example...