When Wales stepped onto the field in Marseille on Saturday afternoon, they would have been hoping that they would have enough to get past an Argentina side who have grown into the Rugby World Cup but who many still feel are not yet at full pace.
However, as things turned out, Los Pumas ended up bringing Warren Gatland’s side’s time in France to a swift conclusion, in what was one of a number of surprising results over the course of the quarter-final weekend. For Wales, it was a reminder that, despite them topping their pool and securing a morale-boosting win against Australia, they are still a developing side and have work to do if they are to reach the top of the game again, but for Argentina it demonstrated that they are not a side to be taken lightly and that New Zealand, who now face them in the semi-finals, will need to be on their game if they are to avoid going the same way.
When breaking down the South Americans’ performance, what becomes immediately obvious is the amount of defensive work that they got through, and there is no doubting that this aspect of their play was what made the difference on the day, as this tactical analysis will show.
It was clear from the outset that Argentina had come into this game with clear tactics in mind, and that was always going to make them a more difficult team to break down due to the way that different players would connect with each other around the field and support both attacking and defensive play as needed.
The way that that teamwork helped in defence is highlighted here, with Wales in possession through replacement fly-half Sam Costelow, following a set piece on the far side of the field. He has been closed down at pace by Argentina, as would be expected, but the key thing here is that it is not just one player making the run forward, but two or three. What this shows is that Michael Cheika’s team are constantly planning ahead in these situations, with them thinking not only about what could happen now but also in two or three phases’ time.
In this case, that allowed them to be prepared to not just close Scarlets standoff Costelow down, but to prevent captain Jac Morgan from making any headway once the ball had been offloaded to him, with the Ospreys flanker instantly surrounded by those secondary Argentinian runners and leaving him with no option but to take the ball to ground and to hope that his teammates could get to him before a turnover was forced.
In doing so, he failed to make any territory for his side, which is the important thing to note here, and this happened time and time again and was a key reason for Argentina keeping Wales back for large parts of the match.
To make this work to its full capability though, lane discipline was always going to be vital, with Argentina recognising that they would need to ensure that they didn’t get too carried away and get sucked towards the ball whilst leaving spaces open either side of each breakdown situation, and they were all too aware of the dangers of doing so having come up against Australia during the Rugby Championship earlier in the year and having benefitted from their disorganised defensive line, as previous analysis has shown.
As a result, it was clear to see that the Argentinian players each chose a channel and stuck to it whenever Los Pumas didn’t have the ball, and that allowed individual players to move out of line and to make early tackles, as Toulouse full-back Juan Cruz Mallía has done here on Welsh counterpart and Kubota Spears player Liam Williams, knowing that those behind them would retain their rigid and well-organised shape. In this case, the threat is on the far side of the field, and Argentina have recognised this and so have two players stationed out there and preventing Wales from making any quick breaks outside them.
It wasn’t only when Wales got up the field that Argentina committed to defending on the front foot though, and there were plenty of occasions when they took matters into their own hands and pushed even higher up the pitch in their hunt for control of the game.
In this case, Edinburgh winger Emiliano Boffelli has looked to apply instant pressure on Dragons back Rio Dyer as soon as the latter has gathered a long kick up the field, and the result was that, much like Morgan earlier in the scout report, Wales were unable to make any significant territorial gains and were instead forced to operate inside their own 22m area and to try and build from the back.
The advantage for Argentina of being this aggressive in their defensive press was that it put all of the pressure on Wales, with them knowing that any error would lead to an Argentina penalty and the potential for Los Pumas to put the game beyond them once and for all, and that told here as Gatland’s side did maintain possession for a few phases but eventually coughed up a penalty to allow Argentina to add more points to their tally.
Therefore, again, the intent and desire that the South Americans showed when without the ball was clear to see, and it was undoubtedly a decisive factor in taking them through to the semi-finals and in sending Wales home.
As was mentioned earlier, a significant reason for Argentina being so difficult to break down was the understanding that each of their players had when it came to their game plan and their ability to read the game and always be ahead of their opponents. That was shown in ways other than simply getting up the field for second and third phases though, with this situation showing one moment when Los Pumas were on the back foot and looked like conceding a try at a crucial stage of the match.
However, what let Wales down here was the fact that Dyer, who had led the attack, had not released the ball when there was an opportunity for him to do so and so had been forced to take the ball into contact at this point. Even though Wales managed to recycle it through Cardiff scrum-half Tomos Williams, the substitute now has to generate momentum and to choose his pass carefully, with Argentina using that extra second to bolster their defensive line and to create layers behind the ball.
With this in place, they had the advantage, with the ball travelling to Gloucester winger Louis Rees-Zammit from Williams, but Argentina replacement Matías Moroni getting across and making the tackle, having read the play earlier and ensured that he could make an intervention at the right moment. It was a moment that led to the Newcastle Falcons centre receiving plaudits afterwards for his efforts, and it showed again just how important it was for Argentina to stay ahead of their opponents mentally.
They were not perfect, with Wales scoring a couple of tries after running between them too easily and taking advantage of momentary hesitations, but there was enough there to show that they are a team full of confidence at the moment, and they will now be relishing their meeting with the All Blacks on Friday night.