Everyone expected Argentina and Canada to be playing each other in a semi-final this week, just not the important one.The two underdogs pulled off stunning wins over South Africa and Australia to set up a meeting in the second Classic semi-final tomorrow on a night of upset at the National Sports Centre.Their opponents meanwhile must battle it out in the Plate competition, a position neither Southern Hemisphere side can have imagined themselves being in at the start of the week.For Canada, so long the tournament’s whipping boys, last night’s 19-15 win was a vindication of self-belief. The Pumas on the other hand simply blasted South Africa off the park in a 7-5 triumph that left the Springboks bloodied, bruised and beaten at the end of one the best games the Classic has seen in a long time.“We wanted to start things off with a bang and I don’t think anyone really gave us a chance, except for ourselves,” Rod Snow, the Canada prop said. “You can call it what want, you can say it’s Classic, you can say everyone’s over the hill but it meant a lot to us.“Sometimes it doesn’t matter who the best and who the most skilled team is, who has the most caps, it’s all about who wants it the most and that was clearly us.”A far cry from the one-sided affairs thrown up on the first day, last night’s matches were physical, intense encounters where no quarter was asked and none was given.“That was a pretty physical game,” said Snow. “A lot of guys have played at the highest level and the skill level and the pace, that’s all different, but in terms of the intensity, I think that was up there.”Canada got off to a flying start when they laid siege to the Australia line, forced Mark Malloy into conceding a penalty in front of the posts and Kyle Nicholls, the centre, barged his way over from close in following a well-worked set scrum.The Wallabies found themselves even further behind less than five minutes later when Morgan Williams crossed under the posts following more sustained pressure and Joey Alexis’ conversion put the Canadian’s 12-0 up.Alexis was at the heart of everything good that came from the Canada backline last night, as was Williams and with Kol Henrickson providing a constant threat on the wing Canada were more than worth their lead.Tries from Ben Batger and Nick Riley, the second of which saw Riley start a move under his own posts and finish it at the other end of the field, dragged Australia to within two points, but that was as close as they got.Henrickson crossed just before the break following another attacking scrum just inside the Australia 22, and Alexis’ conversion put Canada 19-10 up at the break.Australia will point to a five minute spell midway through the second half as the point that the game got away from them. Riley had a try ruled out because he was adjudged to have stepped into touch during a scoring run down the left touchline, and when Australia stole the resulting lineout, Nathan Spooner’s grubbed kick was knocked on Anton Lavin almost underneath the Canada posts.The Wallabies finally grabbed their third try through Batger with little more than ten minutes remaining, but a third missed conversion left them four points short and they could find now way past a determined Canada defence.Any hint of a break was snuffed out by a swarm of red shirts, while Snow, Adam Marshall, Scott Franklin, fresh from World Cup duty in New Zealand, and Dave Knowles dominated at the breakdown.Dominance in the forwards was also the key to Argentina’s victory and though it was by a smaller margin, it was no less comprehensive.The Pumas pack battered South Africa into submission and if their national team wanted any hints as to how they might win during the newly formed Rugby Championship, the replacement for the Tri Nations, they need only watch a tape of this game.Juan Campero, the lock, had a giant of a game ruling the lineout and doing his bit to frustrate the Springboks at the breakdown were David Van Hoesslin and his backs were starved of any quick ball.Alongside Campero, props Pablo Gambarini and Mariano Bosch tackled their hearts out, while the likes of Alenjandro Allub and Alejandro Galli made the hard yards up the middle.South Africa did their best to stop Argentina playing as well and in the end the only thing that separated the two teams was Werner Greef’s missed conversion following Gert Du Preez’s try early in the second half.Lucio Lopez had already crossed for the Pumas by that stage, and Frederico Todeschini’s conversion from the left hand touchline into another howling wind was as good a kick as the tournament has seen so far.