By Duncan Wood
July 1 2002

Bristol's two Argentinian internationals, Agustin Pichot and Felipe Contepomi, did their level best but a very tired looking Argentinian team slipped to defeat against South Africa at the weekend.

The Pumas battled gamely and actually made a very good start to the game, pinning the Springboks back in their own 22 with an incisive attack.

But, one of the curious aspects about Saturday's game was the way that the scoring took place in fits and bursts. The match was scoreless for the best part of 20 minutes although the crowd were treated to the rarity of a missed Gonzalo Quesada kick at goal.

Then the Springboks hit Argentina with 17 unanswered points although it has to be said that the Pumas did rather gift the scores to South Africa.

Credit to Argentina, they did strike back and Agustin Pichot was at the heart of their try, scooping a ball off the ground despite the attentions of a couple of South African defenders for Lobbe to crash over.

Having brought it back to 17-16, South Africa then scored 13 more points to open up a telling gap. A penalty try and Quesada's boot got it back to 37-29 and Argentina were pressing for another score but late scores resulted in a 49-29 win.

The scoreline probably didn't do Argentina justice and Gus and Felipe looked as tired as the rest of the team. It was their third test in 3 weeks following a long flight from Argentina and they were also playing at altitude.

The two Bristol boys could probably do with a good rest before the new season...