Pumas on a killing spree

Argentina maximised on Mamuka Gorgodze’s second-half sin-binning to record a vital bonus-point 54-9 victory over Georgia on Friday to all but guarantee themselves the second automatic qualifying spot in Pool C.

Having been beaten 26-16 by champion New Zealand in their opening game, the Argentinians had to beat Georgia, who were surprise 17-10 winners over Tonga in their opener, to stay in the race for the knock-out phase.

With two remaining pool games against Tonga and minnows Namibia on October 4 and 11, both in Leicester, Argentina will be out-and-out favourites to progress alongside the All Blacks into the quarter-finals. Argentina were made to work hard in the first-half, enjoying just a 14-9 lead thanks to nine points from the boot of influential fly-half Nicolas Sanchez and Tomas Lavanini’s solitary try while Georgian veteran Merab Kvirikashvili kicked three penalties. But when Georgian skipper Gorgodze was rightly sin binned in the 45th minute, the South Americans made hay, scoring three converted tries through Tomas Cubelli, Juan Imhoff and Santiago Cordero in the space of six minutes with some wonderful running rugby.

With Georgia flagging, Martin Landajo first scored, and then Cordero and Bosch grabbed their second tries, Marcelo Bosch hitting two conversions as Argentina racked up 40 unanswered points.

(AFP)