Lacklustre start to Wallaby tour

World champions Australia began their four-match tour yesterday with an unattractive 17-6 win over Argentina in Buenos Aires.

It was an unhappy game for the Pumas' Felipe Contepomi, who missed seven penalties.

Centre Matt Burke kicked three penalties for the Wallabies and Stirling Mortlock claimed the only try of a lacklustre and dirty encounter, which ended with Argentina being booed off the field by a 50,000-strong crowd at the River Plate Stadium.

Australia, who lost 33-31 to South Africa in their last outing in August, are treating the tour as an important warm-up for when they host the World Cup and defend their title - with Argentina as their first opponents - next October.

They set off for Ireland today and will also play England and Italy.

"We haven't played as badly as this for a long time," said Pumas winger Diego Albanese, who barely got a chance to show his pace.

"We're very angry with ourselves. We didn't feel Australia outclassed us, but things didn't work, we lost a lot of ball."

Hooker Adam Freier and flanker David Croft came off the bench in the second half to make their Wallaby debuts.

Winger Wendall Sailor, who has been nursing an injured knee, came on in the first half to replace Ben Tune, who went off with a hamstring injury.

Tune will miss the rest of the tour. He leaves for home today to have scans on the injury, clearing the way for Sailor to start for the Wallabies.

Neither side managed to settle in a bad-tempered first half.

The Wallabies drew first blood in the fourth minute with a Burke penalty, but Contepomi levelled the scores in the 25th minute with a penalty, making amends for one he had missed minutes earlier.

Burke then landed two more penalties to give Australia a 9-3 lead, while Contepomi landed one more and missed two others.

The only try of the match came in first-half stoppage time when Stephen Larkham released Mortlock and the Australian winger ran down the left flank to score in the corner, giving Australia a 14-6 lead at halftime.

There was little improvement after the break.

Tempers continued to flare and the game turned into a succession of rucks, with neither team capable of putting together any flowing moves.

Argentina put the tourists under more pressure, but lacked inspiration to get past the Australian backline.

They were not helped by the wayward kicking of Contepomi, who missed four more penalties, including two sitters in front of the posts.

Elton Flatley completed the scoring in injury time with another penalty for Australia.

The Wallabies were seething after the match, with accusations of eye-gouging, punching and kicking by Argentina.

They also claimed to have been spat on by the crowd each time they ran on and from the field.

Blindside flanker Matt Cockbain said he was eye-gouged by Pumas hooker Federico Mendez, losing a contact lens.

"He had his finger in my eye and I was trying to turn my head to get away," Cockbain said.

"He just kept going and going and I couldn't get away, and then he elbowed me in the nose and I had to go off in the bloodbin."

They were also on the wrong end of a 19-8 penalty count and were equally hurt by a high injury toll.

As well as Tune, Burke (thigh), fullback Mat Rogers (rib cartilage) and hooker Jeremy Paul (hamstring) left the field injured.

* Wales launched their international campaign with an unconvincing 40-3 win against Romania in Wrexham which will do little to boost their confidence ahead of their upcoming meeting with the All Blacks.

Only 12-0 up at the break after four penalties from Pontypridd's retiring first five-eighth Neil Jenkins, the Welsh finally upped the pressure in the second half, but the three tries they grabbed in addition to a late penalty try did little to appease the fans.

After being booed off the pitch at halftime, No. 8 Scott Quinnell and wings Mark Jones and Gareth Thomas came back to grab tries against a Romanian side who proved far more difficult opposition than on their two previous visits, when they conceded 151 points.

- AGENCIES