Argentina coach Daniel Hourcade insisted his side would keep their feet on the ground after hammering Georgia 54-9 on Friday to put them on course to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.
Argentina went down 26-16 to champions New Zealand in their opening game. They are now favorites to qualify as second in Pool C with two remaining games against Tonga and minnows Namibia.
A tight first half at Gloucester’s Kingsholm Stadium gave way to a seven-try mauling, with Tomas Lavanini, Tomas Cubelli and Martin Landajo all crossing for tries, while Juan Imhoff and Santiago Cordero both got a brace.
Nicolas Sanchez adeptly pulled the strings at flyhalf, opening the scoring with a drop-goal and bagging two penalties and three conversions for a personal tally of 15 points.
Marcelo Bosch kicked two conversions.
The turning point of the game, played before a sell-out, Argentinian dominated 16,500-strong crowd, came when Georgia skipper Mamuka Gorgodze was sin binned in the 45th minute. In his absence, Argentina scored three converted tries to pull clear on the way to their bonus-point victory.
“I’m sure there was no infringement, there was no penalty there,” Gorgodze insisted of his yellow card for preventing the Pumas quick ball at a ruck on their line.
“I would like to see it again, but the referee is always right,” the giant Toulon No. 8 lamented. “We’re not at a high enough level to play two tough games.”
Hourcade was left basking in his side’s performance, notably their second half, but stressed that there is more work to do.
“We gave away many penalties in the first half, but managed to show in the second half how we wanted to play,” Hourcade said.