Contepomi hails never-say-die Pumas

Argentina captain Felipe Contepomi hailed his young side's never-say-die attitude after bagging a last-ditch 13-12 victory over Scotland that saw them take a massive step to the World Cup quarterfinals.

Scotland were 12-6 up with seven minutes to go, but Los Pumas kept their cool and rebounded with a try from Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino out of nothing, Contepomi himself falling back on years of practice to land the conversion.

"It was an important game for the team, it was a must-win game," said Contepomi, adding that the rib injury that had ruled him out of the Romania game had not plagued him.

"Maybe we didn't manage to play the way we wanted to, but it was very important that we managed to turn around six points in the final 10 minutes."

Contepomi, playing in his 15th World Cup match, said the victory had a special place alongside their shock third-placing at the 2007 World Cup.

"It's hard to rate it in a ranking but it's definitely a very important moment for this team because it's a different team from the last World Cups. There are 20 or 21 players who have not played in a World Cup before.

"And the way we came to this World Cup with very few people believing in this team, this is a huge boost for us," he explained.

But he warned that Argentina's test would continue next weekend in their quest for qualification, the Scots having the much harder task of playing unbeaten England.

"We have one more pool game to play against Georgia to try to qualify," said Contepomi, who could consider himself lucky not to have been penalised for offside while attempting to charge down an unsuccessful, last-gasp Dan Parks drop-goal.

"We haven't achieved anything yet. We're in the front seat in terms of going to play Georgia and bidding to qualify."

The Argentinian captain added that he had buried the pressure of the crucial final conversion in the years spent practicising goal-kicking.

"In the last few minutes when they scored a drop-goal and were six points ahead, we were thinking we need to score a try but we knew it would be tough because of the weather conditions," he said.

"When Lucas scored, I said 'What a great try, but now I have to convert it! Then I came back to all my practice and focused on my routine. It's a tough pitch to kick because of the wind but I had confidence in my practice," added the Pumas skipper.

Contepomi agreed with Scotland coach Andy Robinson's conclusion that Argentina had won because of "30 seconds of madness" after the Scots had dominated the match for long periods.

"I think he's probably right, they played better than us, but rugby is 80 minutes long. It was the same for us against England, but unfortunately we lost," he said

Argentina coach Santiago Phelan added: "Argentina won the game because we never surrendered until the final whistle. One of the most important things was that the players knew the match was 80 minutes long and they didn't let their heads drop.

"That was evident in the last three minutes. It's what we asked of them and they did it.

"It was a very tough game to play because of the weather conditions. We didn't control the ball when we had possession, but our defence was very good and we managed to control the Scottish attack," he said.

AFP