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Shock wins for Pumas and Canada

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Argentina and Canada pulled off stunning upset wins at the World Rugby Classic last night.The Pumas beat South Africa 7-5 in a bruising encounter at the National Sports Centre before Canada shocked Australia 19-15 in yesterday’s second game.While many expected the Wallabies and the Springboks to advance to the Classic semi-final tomorrow, where Argentina and Canada will now meet, the Southern Hemisphere sides will instead be playing in the Plate competition having been thoroughly outplayed.In South Africa’s case they weren’t just outplayed they were outfought too, and the magnificent display from Argentina’s forwards, led by the awesome Juan Campero, was the key to their famous win.“We knew that South Africa was going to plan a very physical game and we were prepared for that,” Rodolfo Ventura, the Argentina manager said. “For us, one of our strengths is in defence, it worked very well today and we took advantage of the small opportunities that we had.“We scored at the beginning and we were very close to scoring at the end of the match, but it was a very hard second half, but we succeeded with what we planned and that is the real success of tonight.”While Campero will take most of the plaudits, the Argentina pack as a unit were too much for their South Africa counterparts to handle and the aggression they showed at the breakdown rocked the Springboks back time and again.“They were very aggressive, the forwards,” said Ventura. “Our second row is very strong in the minds too, and that’s why we chose those players.”

Bloodied and beaten: South Africa centre Pieter Muller tries to get his side moving forward during last night?s game against Argentina.