New Zealand cruise into Rugby World Cup final with dominant victory over Argentina
By Simon SmaleNew Zealand are into a fifth Rugby World Cup final after a dominant 44-6 thrashing of Argentina at the Stade de France.
Will Jordan scored a hat trick as the All Blacks powered past a disappointing Argentina side in a desperately underwhelming match after the drama of last weekend's quarterfinals.
Player of the match Jordie Barrett also crossed, as did Aaron Smith and Shannon Frizell twice to pummel Los Pumas to highlight the highly publicised disparity between the two sides of the draw.
"I am so proud of this group," Barrett said.
"It's not done yet, we will have a very tough match regardless of who we have next week."
Although Argentina scored the first points of the match off the boot, New Zealand dominated from start to finish.
Jordan dived over for the first of his three scores untouched after just 11 minutes following a powerful surge down the middle of the field from New Zealand, who turned defence into attack after repelling multiple phases of unimaginative Argentine attacking play away from inside their 22.
Jordie Barrett scored in the same corner soon after to extend the All Blacks' lead before a devastating passage of play either side of the break put the game to bed.
Argentina were second best but still in contact thanks to two penalties from Amiliano Boffelli to trail 15-6 as the clock ticked over 40 minutes.
But Frizel powered over in time added on to give the All Blacks a 20-6 lead at the break and, straight from the restart after half time, Aaron Smith scooted over off the back of a powerful scrum to put New Zealand out of sight.
"The last couple of minutes before half time, the first couple of minutes after half time, they're the little nuances that we don't have in our team as of yet," Argentina coach Michael Cheika said after the match.
"[We] Just didn't have the class."
Los Pumas struggled in every facet of the match, their normally reliable scrum going backwards under pressure from the dominant New Zealand pack.
Frizell burrowed over for his second soon after following multiple phases of play to further extend the lead before Jordan fell over the line to score his second.
His hattrick try though, was something special.
The winger burst through the line on half way thanks to a magical inside pass from Ardie Savea before chipping, chasing and regathering to score in the corner, his eighth try of the tournament — level with luminaries such as Jonah Lomu, Bryan Habana and Julian Savea for the most at a single Rugby World Cup.
He could not equal Lomu's record haul of four in a semifinal though after Mo'unga, uncharacteristically poor with the boot off the tee, failed to pass to him with the line at his mercy.
That and a yellow card to Scott Barrett were the only sour points in an otherwise dominant performance, so dominant that, with seven minutes remaining in the match, New Zealand opted not to bring Barrett back on, finishing the game with 14 men.
They will now await with winner of Sunday's (AEDT) other semifinal between England and South Africa.
Look back at how all the action unfolded in our live blog.
Key events
- New Zealand cruise into Rugby World Cup final
- 74' Try New Zealand
- 62' Another try for New Zealand!
- 49' Try New Zealand!
- 42' Try New Zealand!
- All Blacks lead 20-6 at half time
- 40+1' Try New Zealand!
- 37' Penalty New Zealand
- 33' Penalty Argentina
- 17' Try New Zealand!
- 11' Try New Zealand!
- 3' Penalty Argentina
- 1' Kick off in Paris!
- Argentina line up
- All Blacks lineup
Live updates
We'll wrap things up now
By Simon Smale
Thanks for being with us for today's semifinal.
It wasn't much of a match and, given the disparity between the two sides of the draw, I do not hold out much hope for tomorrow either.
But I have been wrong before more times than I can count and I'd be happy to be proven wrong again tomorrow, when we'll have full coverage of the match between South Africa and England from 5:00am AEDT.
Until then, keep your eye on the website for all the fallout from this one and I'll see you back here tomorrow bright and early for the second semifinal.
Thanks for being with me.
New Zealand coach Ian Foster: 'It's everything'
By Simon Smale
Here's New Zealand coach Ian Foster.
Remember how much pressure he was under a year ago, after a series defeat to Ireland at home...
He's now on the cusp of a World Cup winners medal.
"It's everything. It's the goal. We came here wanting to be in the final and then we obviously want to go and win it. We have given ourselves that opportunity," he says.
"I am incredibly proud of the way we backed it up tonight. I thought it was a tough game.
"We got asked a lot of questions from Argentina early.
"We held great composure and finished strong so I am pretty pleased."
Argentina 'Incredibly disappointing'
By Simon Smale
Argentina coach Michael Cheika is speaking.
"Incredibly disappointing from us," Cheika says.
"The last couple of minutes before half time, the first couple of minutes after half time, they're the little nuances that we don't have in our team as of yet."
"[We] Just didn't have the class."
Cheika says that the team is now targeting next week's third-place play off.
"It's not finished yet. We want to go home with a medal.
"I'm not sure you get one for coming third."
I think you do, Cheiks.
Argentina desperately disappointing
By Simon Smale
Let's be honest - this is not one that got away.
Argentina did not turn up tonight.
A third Rugby World Cup semifinal and their biggest defeat.
Jordie Barrett is player of the match
By Simon Smale
Not three-try hero Will Jordan, although to be fair he did just fall over for two of them.
It's Jordie Barrett.
"That's so sweet," he says.
"It's new territory for this group. We slipped at the semi-final hurdle four years ago."
New Zealand cruise into Rugby World Cup final
By Simon Smale
It was devilishly dominant from the All Blacks.
Seven tries, three of them to Will Jordan, Argentina were never in the match and, frankly, have been battered by New Zealand in every possible facet of the game.
They got off to a bad start with the referee and once the penalties started to come, so did the points and the Argentine heads dropped really quickly.
Utterly dominant.
A fifth Rugby World Cup final for New Zealand coming up next week.
80+3' Penalty New Zealand
By Simon Smale
We'll play on here after a really frenetic passage of play.
Anton Lienert-Brown almost hacked his way through for a score but knocked the ball on but then Argentina were off their feet.
80' New Zealand butcher a chance of history
By Simon Smale
Will Jordan was on his own outside on the right, but Richie Mo'unga went for the line himself and was tackled.
It's knocked on too.
Had Jordan gone over, he would have scored the most tries in a Rugby World Cup final since a certain Jonah Lomu scored four in 1995 against England.
He has eight in the tournament already, which is the same number as Lomu scored in 1995 and equal with two others in tournament history.
If he doesn't score next week though I reckon Mo'unga owes him.
78' 50:22 by Richie Mo'unga
By Simon Smale
He's not been great off the tee so far, but he has kicked well out of hand and that's another beauty, finding touch five metres from the line after kicking from inside the 50.
It's New Zealand ball.
77' New Zealand will see out the game with 14 men
By Simon Smale
They could have Scott Barrett come back on - but they think he could do with the rest.
So, incredibly, in the final humiliation for Argentina, New Zealand have decided they can do without their full complement of players to end the game.
74' Try New Zealand
By Simon Smale
BRILLIANT FROM NEW ZEALAND! BRILLIANT FROM WILL JORDAN!
Will Jordan got the inside ball from Ardie Savea on half way and burst through a massive gap.
He only had the fullback to beat and chipped the ball over the top delicately, running onto the bouncing ball and regathering to score.
Magical moment from the 14 men of New Zealand.
Another missed kick off the tee from Mo'unga but the score is 44-6 and rapidly moving into embarrassing territory.
70' Knock on New Zealand
By Simon Smale
Just a little bit of inaccuracy there from the All Blacks leads to a scrum for Argentina on their 10 metre line.
There is absolutely no heat in this game any more - the crowd are barely engaged, the players of course are giving their all, but with none of the jeopardy that a Rugby World Cup semifinal should have.
67' Penalty Argentina
By Simon Smale
A little bit of ill discipline creeping in for New Zealand gives Argentina a platform to launch a bid for pride.
They line out is won, but then Argentina knock the ball on - only for New Zealand to clear and Los Pumas will have a lineout on the New Zealand 10 metre line.
66' Yellow card Scott Barrett
By Simon Smale
Oh well, talk about unnecessary.
The reason that ball was so hard for Argentina in their own 22 was that Scott Barrett slapped it out the hand of scrumhalf Gonzalo Bertranou while he was lying in the ruck.
That's just idiocy from Barrett.
It won't cost his team anything meaningful, but he gets a 1--minute break.
65' Knock on Argentina
By Simon Smale
Oh my, well, this is just not great at all.
New Zealand manage to get to the Argentine defence and put it under pressure deep inside the 22.
There is more and more pressure coming and that pressure leads to a knock on.
62' Another try for New Zealand!
By Simon Smale
Far too easy for New Zealand.
Another multi-phase attack from the All Blacks, Argentina scrambling to make tackles and defend their line, but overcommitting to the ruck allowing Will Jordan another single finish.
The conversion is missed from the sideline, but that barely matters now.
It's 39-6.
60' Penalty New Zealand
By Simon Smale
Not from the scrum this time, but offside in midfield.
Argentina are getting overwhelmed through sheer All Black pressure at every instance of the game here.
New Zealand kick for touch and will have a lineout on the 22.
60' Argentina knock on
By Simon Smale
New Zealand has the scrum after a Argentina knock on.
There is a running commentary between the referee and the Argentina physio, one of the Argentine players wants treatment on his foot, Angus Gardner says that given he ran all the way over to where the mark is before taking off his boot, he should be OK to continue.
57' Argentina penalty
By Simon Smale
Brilliant cross field kick!
What Jordie Barrett and Will Jordan couldn't manage, Santiago Carreras and Emiliano Boffelli managed.
They get a penalty off the back of that move and will kick for touch.
Los Pumas with the line out 6 metres out.
56' Argentina scrum after marvelous cross-field kick
By Simon Smale
Another long passage of play, 16 phases but the All Blacks were going nowhere, until Jordi Barrett slammed a remarkably accurate cross-field kick for Will Jordan to race onto - and he almost got there too, but he knocked the ball on.
Argentina has a scrum.