We controlled the whole match, says jubilant Puma Hernandez

IT LOOKED at times that the fleet-footed and skilful Argentine fly-half Juan Martin Hernandez could have walked on water at the Parc des Princes yesterday such was his sublime brilliance in all facets of out half play.

Super-confident under a high ball, tactically astute in his percentage kicking game and calmly floating over drop goals for fun, Hernandez is becoming one of the players of the tournament.

The Stade Francais players always felt his side “controlled” Ireland over the 80 plus minutes and criticised Ireland’s one-dimensional attack.

“We were better than them,” said a justifiably proud Hernandez afterwards.

“We controlled them during the whole match, even if they scored two tries our strategy was perfect.

“They were desperate and didn’t know what to do.

“They only passed to the captain to make something happen.

“We were very good in defence and mentally.”

An emotional Hernandez found it difficult to sum up the feelings of beating Ireland by double scores and topping Pool D.

“It’s very hard to explain the emotion with words. We share the joy and now we are thinking about the next step.”

And those wondrous drop goals?

“They went in but I don’t think just about my drop goals, I enjoyed everything that happened today.”

Argentina captain Agustin Pichot said it was a wonderful achievement to win all their pool matches and avoid a quarter-final clash with the all conquering All Blacks.

But he also commended his coaches for the strategy they had put in place before yesterday’s game.

“It is a great achievement to win four matches, it’s what we wanted to achieve. It was the most important factor for the team to show what we are capable of.

“It was a very tactical match. We knew what had to be done. The coaches had us well prepared. We knew Ireland was a dangerous team and could take away our stability and control. When a team (like Ireland) can control the game it can get out of hand.”

“We don’t need to look at changing things, we need to look at the future and be prepared to play for what we believe in.”

“We may not be tactically the best team in the competition, we may not be the biggest team or the strongest physically, but we played a very special match today and proved ourselves.”