Argentina warmed up for the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals with a nine-try win over Namibia in their final Pool C match in Leicester on Monday morning.
An Argentina fan watches his team's win over Namibia at the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The 64-19 victory was a comfortable day out for the Pumas, who were simply too fast and physical for the African side.
Argentina will play the winner of this morning's Pool D decider between Ireland and France in the quarter-finals.
Argentina's Juan Martin Hernandez, one of the standouts of the side that reached the 2007 semi-finals and handed a rare start at first-five, set the ball rolling with the opening try.
Matias Moroni, with his first international try, Horacio Agulla, Facundo Isa and Lucas Noguera also crossed before the break as the South Americans forged a 36-7 half-time lead, with Matias Alemanno, Leonardo Senatore, Julian Montoya and Tomas Cubelli dotting down in the second half.
Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias kicked four conversions and a penalty, with Juan Pablo Socino adding four further conversions.
Namibia had to feed off scraps of possession but showed admirable determination to attack and were rewarded with tries from wing Johan Tromp, centre JC Greyling and halfback Eugene Jantjies, with first-five Theuns Kotze converting two.
"We knew we had to play well against Namibia and we did that, even though there were mistakes," Argentina captain Martin Landajo said.
"Now we can think about the quarter-finals, though I can honestly say I don't care if we play Ireland or France. We will see who we get."
Roared on by a sizeable portion of the 30,198 crowd, Argentina showed a willingness to run the ball at every opportunity and the pace of their attack often left Namibia clutching at air.
Wing Moroni's try was one for the Namibia horror-reel as he brushed of a collection of feeble attempted tackles.
Namibia's first two tries came from Argentine mistakes as Tromp and Greyling fed off wayward passes and poor hands to race clear and score, giving Argentina coach Daniel Hourcade something to ponder as they enter the knockout phase.
The spirit in the Namibian camp was evident right to the death. Having scored their third try past the 80-minute mark, giant prop Johnny Redelinghuys was given the chance to take the conversion to mark his 50th and final international.
His attempt never looked like going over but drew one of the biggest cheers of the day.
"We were exposed a bit," Namibia captain Rohan Kitshoff said. "It's not the way we wanted to leave the World Cup, but we showed a lot of heart until the end."
- Reuters
