The incident took place before 30 seconds; the sin-binning before a minute. There was a Samoa yellow card in their match-up with Argentina before some fans had even taken their seat.

With a ball hoisted up into the sodden Saint-Étienne skies, Santiago Carreras came down with it – but with Samoa 15 Duncan Paia’aua barging to get under him. The fly-half was upended and referee Nic Berry had a decision to make.

Check out the incident here.

The full-back was given a yellow card, although it was not upgraded to a red by the bunker.

With numbers up, los Pumas worked the ball to Emiliano Boffelli who flew over in the corner, before converting his own try.

The Argentinians were guilty of trying to do too much with ball in hand though, with the error count unavoidable.

Meanwhile, Samoa playmaker Christian Leali’ifano missed a couple of shots at goal in the first half. And the Pacific Islanders put on real pressure at the climax of the half, only for scrum-half Jonathan Taumateine to spill the ball as he wheeled away from the scrum and went for the line.

The match didn’t lack for physicality, though. And the Samoans rallied in the second period, somehow, some way, repelling the Pumas as they tried to maul, carry and crunch over the try-line. Their shut-out around the 48-minute mark was a remarkable rearguard stand.

Samoa yellow card aside, though, Argentina were playing with a real energy and wanted to make Samoa battle for every metre in this contest.

In a scrappy old affair, Sama Malolo’s late try did offer hope for Samoa, however a Nicolas Sanchez penalty made it 19-10, and it finished with Argentina nine points to the good, and Samoa without any bonus points to show for their work.

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