Argentina reaches Rugby World Cup quarterfinals

Argentina beat Georgia 25-7 to set up a Rugby World Cup quarterfinal against host New Zealand, which rebounded from the loss of playmaker Dan Carter to rout Canada and finish group play with a perfect record. Pumas captain Felipe Contepomi scored 13 points in Palmerston North as Argentina rallied with 20 unanswered second- half points to seal the Pool B runner-up spot behind England and eliminate Scotland. Argentina, which finished third at the 2007 World Cup, advanced to a quarterfinal against the top-ranked All Blacks on Oct. 9 at Auckland’s Eden Park. “We have to rest now and then start analyzing the All Blacks and try to see their weakest points,” Contepomi said in a televised interview. “It will hopefully be a good game and we can be competitive on the day. We are thrilled we went through but now we have to work hard.” In today’s remaining games, Wales can seal the Pool D runner-up spot by beating Fiji, and Italy and Ireland play for the right to join Australia in advancing from Pool C. Scotland, which lost 16-12 to England yesterday, had needed Georgia to win by at least eight points to maintain its record of always reaching the World Cup quarterfinals. The Georgians got one converted try through Lasha Khmaladze to lead 7-5 at half time. Argentina scored tries through Juan Jose Imhoff, Agustin Gosio and Contepomi, who kicked two penalties and a conversion. 12-Try Rout New Zealand, which lost Carter to a tournament-ending groin injury, outscored Canada by 12 tries to two in Wellington to claim its fourth straight bonus-point win and finish atop Pool A with the maximum 20 points. Winger Zac Guildford went over four times and back-row forwards Jerome Kaino and Victor Vito each touched down twice for the All Blacks. Winger Conor Trainor got Canada’s tries. Vito, who started the game at openside flanker in place of injured regular captain Richie McCaw, finished in the backline after Carter’s backup, Colin Slade, left the field injured.“We’ve just got to make sure that all 29 of us left get in there and make it easy for the guy wearing No. 10,” All Blacks stand-in captain Andrew Hore said. “We played pretty well today and if we can keep building on that we’ll go a long way toward winning this thing.” Carter, the leading points scorer in Test matches, was ruled out of the rest of the tournament after tearing a groin tendon during kicking practice yesterday. Slade, who limped out of the game after an hour, slotted a penalty and missed four of his eight conversion attempts. Piri Weepu kicked all four his kicks at goal after finishing the game at fly-half. “I thought Colin played pretty well,” All Blacks coach Graham Henry said in a televised interview. “He hadn’t played a lot of football so that shows, he needs more and more. It’s been a tough old day to be frank.”