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PARIS - Argentina captain Agustin Pichot was both pleased and pained as his side's remarkable World Cup run finally came to an end at the hands of South Africa.
The Pumas, in their first World Cup semifinal, lost 37-13 to the Springboks at the Stade de France here this morning having been 24-6 down at halftime after tries from Fourie du Preez, Bryan Habana and Danie Rossouw put South Africa, who face champions England in Sunday's final (NZ time), in a commanding position.
During the tournament the Pumas captured the hearts of rugby fans around the world after getting the World Cup off to a dramatic start by beating hosts France 17-12 in the tournament opener.
Their rise to fourth in the world rankings, despite not playing in a major annual competition such as Europe's Six Nations or the southern hemisphere's Tri-Nations, has been one of the more romantic sporting stories in recent times and there was a sense they had already 'won' before kick-off.
But 33-year-old halfback Pichot, who is about to join his second Paris-based club, Racing Metro, having won last season's French Championship with capital rivals Stade Francais, said the pain of defeat was just as bitter as if Argentina had been red-hot favourites.
"I will never have this chance again to become a world champion," said Pichot.
"It really hurts, it's a hugely sad day for us. We really felt this was achieveable. It seemed like it was beyond our reach but we got to the semifinals. We wanted to be champions, it just wasn't possible."
Someone else bowing out from Argentina duty was coach Marcelo Loffreda.
The 48-year-old former international, after six years in charge of the Pumas, is about to take the reins at English champions Leicester.
"I'm very proud of the players. We don't have an annual international competition, nevertheless we were beaten by a greater team.
"They were markedly better than us and we were victims of our own mistakes," Loffreda added after a match where all of Argentina's points came from twins and centres Felipe and Manuel Contepomi.
Loffreda, who has long-contended that his predominately Spanish-speaking team are on the end of a disproportionate number of bad decisions from a mainly English-speaking panel of Test referees, was unhappy with the performance of New Zealand official Steve Walsh.
"We couldn't understand the referee very much in the first half. He never explained to us what would happen in the maul. Two times it was obstruction - South Africa did that in second half and it wasn't obstruction.
"He wasn't saying when it was 'hands off', we are used to hearing this."
The 48-year-old added: "We felt disconcerted but this wasn't the reason for the result of today's match."
Loffreda said Argentina's run to the last four, which also included wins against Ireland and Scotland, was a triumph for traditional sporting values.
"I think what Argentina has shown is that rugby is not just about professionalism or individual interests. It also involves love, wearing your colours and team spirit.
"All these things have brought us to this semifinal. This speaks volumes about Argentinean rugby."
- AFP
