Rugby World Cup – Quarter final round up
The quarter finals of the 2015 Rugby World Cup offered varied fortunes for the two Falcons still at the tournament, as Juan Pablo Socino’s Argentina advanced to the last four before Jon Welsh’s Scotland fell to an agonising defeat on Sunday afternoon.
In the first of the two quarter finals, the Argentine’s raced into a 17 point lead against Joe Schmidt’s Ireland, before the men in green launched a fightback that saw them close to within the points of Los Pumas.
It set up a nervy twenty minutes as Nicolas Sanchez and Ian Madigan traded penalties, before the South American’s found a second wind to add 17 points without reply.
The result means Socino will ensure the Falcons have representation in a squad right to the end of the tournament, with at the very least a place in the Bronze final assured for Daniel Hourcade.
In the day’s second quarter final, Jon Welsh was thrown into the very thick of the drama at Twickenham, coming off the bench with five minutes remaining as Scotland looked set for an unexpected win against Australia.
In a game high on entertainment, Vern Cotter’s side matched their more vaunted opponents all the way and had seized the lead with seven minutes remaining following an interception try from centre Mark Bennett.
With rain pouring down, the Scots were successfully winding down the clock, until less than a minute before time, when they were penalised for playing the ball from an offside position giving Australia’s Bernard Foley the chance to steal the result and make it a Southern Hemisphere lock out of the semi finals.
Welsh will report to Kingston Park later this week to begin his Falcons tenure.
