Whistle dominates as Pumas stumble to win

By CHRIS RATTUE

Argentina stumbled to a win over Thames Valley, in what became a bit of a lemon in Paeroa, just four days out from Saturday's test in Christchurch.

Coach Marcelo Loffreda used second-stringers against the Swamp Foxes, who loitered in the NPC second-division cellar last season, but he would have hoped for more than the 26-12 victory yesterday.

It was hardly a confidence builder to send the test troops into battle with. On a clear, chilly afternoon, referee Lyndon Bray's whistle rang most true, with 39 penalties punctuating proceedings.

For 80 minutes, Argentina's four-match journey around New Zealand really was a whistle-stop tour, although both sides accepted blame.

"The referee penalised us on our own ball too much," said halfback and captain Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, who had a couple of arm-waving conversations with Bray.

"But we have to improve our own game before talking about the referee ... to play more on our feet, not go to the floor."

Valley coach Mike Turner sought a talk with Bray, but conceded his players contributed to the problems by being too eager in snaffling the ball on the ground.

It seems pointless looking for blame sometimes when rugby grinds to a halt like this.

There might be a culprit, but you need the wisdom of Solomon to sort through the suspects: ever-changing rules, pedantic referees, players pushing the limits, or even the unstructured nature of rugby which can be its charm.

But something was wrong, as calls for Bray to put his whistle away (along with unprintable suggestions) rang out from the 2000 crowd.

Argentina won through increasing dominance in the tight, although Valley locks Glenn Stanton and captain Bob Rigter were strong in the lineouts.

The tourists took wrong turns and ignored overlaps, and first five-eighths Gonzalo Quesada should have played himself out of the test.

Once the test first choice, Quesada might be saved if Argentina choose to play Felipe Contepomi at fullback at Jade Stadium in Christchurch.

Apart from his finely struck goalkicks, Quesada was poor yesterday. His general kicking was average, he was slow in space, and could not find support.

The Pumas were two penalties down before fullback Federico Serra found the ball in his arms from a failed Valley back move and was unchallenged in a 75m run to the tryline.

In the match-sealing moment to remember, right-wing Jose Nunez Piossek stepped around Thames Valley's poorest tackling to give his side a 20-9 lead after 50 minutes.

Given that this was a rare chance to play against internationals, the honours lay with Thames Valley, although their only points were Aaron Steel penalties.

They had one warm-up game, and their camp involved staying Monday night at a motel. Even then, they could not hole up in Paeroa - the arrival of the Sky television team meant there was no room at the inn, so they stayed half-an-hour's drive away in Thames.

"I was very proud. Argentina were too big and too strong, but we have concentrated on defence and set pieces, and did pretty well there," Turner said.

With Bray close to his final blast, a bloke in a pink dress made his second entry into the game, then hugged a Puma.

Fairly strange stuff, and not to be encouraged in these days of fears over players' safety. The biggest surprise, though, was that Bray did not penalise the intruder for being offside.