Maradona Inspires Argentina To Win Over Tonga

Diego Maradona performed a dressing room dance to help inspire Argentina to an emphatic 45-16 World Cup win over Tonga in Leicester.

Football great Maradona was at the Leicester City Stadium to see the Pumas move to the brink of quarter-final qualification.

Juan Imhoff become the Pumas' all-time Rugby World Cup top tryscorer when he went over during an incisive break and Nicolas Sanchez also scored 26 points.

Maradona visited the Pumas' dressing room after the game and danced with the squad to Rodrigo Bueno's song 'The Hand Of God', written in the footballer's honour.

Creevy said: "He said the whole of Argentina was dreaming with us and everyone was behind us and supporting us. He was here because he wanted to be a part of this. We sung and danced and it was lots of fun.

"It was something different and I could never imagine he would have been there with us. It was a beautiful surprise for all of us.

"For me, Maradona was always the best player in history and it was a very nice surprise to have him visit us. There were videos, he took the nine, 10 and two shirts, he gave us one of his shirts as well and gave us a speech.

"He said if we reach the semi-final he will be there. He has set us a very high goal and we hope he will be there again."

Joaquin Tuculet, Santiago Cordero and Julian Montoya also went over as Argentina recovered from conceding an early try from Kurt Morath but Creevy admitted it was not the perfect performance.

He added: "It was not a dream game, there were mistakes in the game, in defence and in terms of the attack there were cases where we had an opportunity to score and it didn't happen."

They face New Zealand in their final game and while they are not mathematically out of the tournament captain Nili Latu vowed they will go down fighting.

"We'll regroup and come out twice as hard against the All Blacks," he said.

Meanwhile, Keith Earls scored a lone try as Ireland stuttered to a 16-9 win over Italy at the Olympic Stadium.

Earls' first-half effort, along with 11 points from the boot of Jonny Sexton, put the Irish ahead of their Six Nations rivals after a dogged fight.

The win sends Ireland to the top of Pool D, ahead of France on points difference, which means the meeting between the two sides at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday will determine who tops the pool to avoid a likely quarter-final showdown with the All Blacks.

Regardless of who Ireland face in the quarter-final, they will hope for a much more polished performance than the one that greeted the traveling Irish support in East London on Sunday.

Ireland hogged possession during the majority of the 80 minutes, but appeared unable to penetrate the Italian defence.

Italy, led once again by the stubborn efforts of Sergio Parisse, played an expansive game with ball in hand, but did not have the skill to cross the line, and their lineout was a major downfall. The loss means they now cannot qualify for the quarter-finals.

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