Wales’s new national ground, the Millennium Stadium, staged their three pool matches. In this opening match on a wet Friday afternoon the tournament began, but in less than dramatic fashion. Both teams were hampered by a slippery ball, greasy conditions and first-game nervousness.
In what can be described as a moderate beginning for the Welsh, thanks to the supervision of coach Graham Henry the rejuvenated side could afford moderate play to bring about a victory. Such was the marked change in a Wales team that had so dismally represented its nation in Rugby World Cups of old.
Argentina took the lead, after Neil Jenkins had missed his first attempt at goal, with two penalty conversions from the boot of Gonzalo Quesada. Jenkins pulled one back on the half hour mark, and then levelled the scores by slotting over his second penalty a few minutes later. Quesada re-took the lead for the Argentines with thirty-six minutes gone but on the stroke of half-time Wales gained their first try of the game.
Chris Wyatt won the ball at the line-out and swiftly moved it to Scott Quinnell in midfield. Garin Jenkins powered downfield on the right, slipped but maintained possession, and passed to his fly-half namesake who continued the ball to Colin Charvis. He muscled through two tackles in order to cross the try line and as Jenkins converted, Wales went into the interval with a 13-9 advantage.
Having flickered into life before the break Wales continued this impressive form straight after the team-talk. Enjoying the best period of their game Wales scored the second, and final, try of the match. Wyatt found space, and Shane Howarth set about creating the five points after gathering an awful pass from Gareth Thomas. From a ruck Scott Gibbs threw a long ball to wing Dafydd James who provided Thomas with the ball. Thomas cast a superb ball that found Mark Taylor and, in turn, a place over the try line. Jenkins duly converted and added another penalty five minutes later to stretch the Welsh lead to 23-9.
Fly-half Quesada, the sole scorer for his country in the game, slowly but surely edged Argentina back into the match by scoring penalties on the 63rd, 68th and 73rd minute marks. Wales managed to retain the five point difference in the closing stages of the match to secure their first pool-match win.
The match was not without incident due to the uncertain and nervous play from both sides. Wales flanker Charvis and Argentine prop Roberto Grau had been involved in a first-half ruckus in which Grau had received a sin-binning. As television replays concluded, Charvis had been responsible for throwing the first punch. Disciplinary action followed; Charvis would miss the upcoming pool matches with Japan and Samoa following his fourteen day ban whilst Grau received a three-week sanction.
The match also saw the introduction of Jason Jones-Hughes after a lengthy fight with his second nation Australia. After much dispute between the two countries for Jones-Hughes’s talents the centre made his first Welsh appearance against Argentina, having been cleared for Welsh eligibility less than a month previously. Ironically, Jones-Hughes would later miss the match against the Australians in the quarter-final stages.
