New Zealand had to dig deep to come from behind for a 26-16 victory over Argentina when they opened their defence of the Rugby World Cup in front of a record crowd at Wembley yesterday.

The All Blacks trailed 16-12 until the 56th minute but their second-half dominance eventually paid off when scrumhalf Aaron Smith and replacement forward Sam Cane scored tries following a first-half score by Pumas lock Guido Petti.

Flyhalf Dan Carter kicked 16 points for New Zealand and his opposite number Nicolas Sanchez 11 for Argentina, who were looking to beat the All Blacks for the first time.

“I guess that’s what you expect first up,” said New Zealand captain Richie McCaw.

“I thought that second half was a lot more clinical.

“It’s been a while since our last game and we’ve been over here for 10 days or so, so we were itching to get out there and get started. We’ll have to make a few improvements but that’s the nature of rugby.

“It’s a magic place to play here at Wembley, it’s one of the great grounds to play at.”

The 89,019 crowd, in which Argentina fans appeared to outnumber New Zealanders and certainly out-voiced them until the final quarter when the All Blacks asserted their dominance, was the biggest ever at a Rugby World Cup match, surpassing the 82,957 who watched England beat Australia in the 2003 final in Sydney’s Olympic Stadium.

Dominant Wales

In Pool A, Wales sparkled in patches and centre Cory Allen scored a hat-trick to overpower Uruguay 54-9 in their opening match but the gloss was taken off the victory by more fitness concerns.

After a dispiriting build-up to the tournament marred by injuries to key players, the Welsh moved level with hosts England at the top of Pool A on five points ahead of the teams’ seismic clash at Twickenham next Saturday.

“It was a very tough game, Uruguay made it tough for us right from the start,” Wales coach Warren Gatland told reporters.

Allen, full-back Liam Williams, props Paul James, Samson Lee and Aaron Jarvis as well as flanker Dan Lydiate all suffered injuries in yesterday’s game.

Other result
Pool B: Samoa vs US 25-16.

Wednesday’s matches
Pool B: 15.30 Scotland vs Japan.
Pool A: 17.45 Australia vs Fiji.
Pool D: 21.00 France vs Romania.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.