Argentina 15 Classic All Blacks 5 Defending World Rugby Classic champions Argentina marched into Saturday's final after a full-on encounter with the mighty New Zealand All Blacks.

But the 15-5 victory came at a price with scrum-half Claudio Cid needing minor surgery afterwards after he appeared to be floored by a punch that resounded around Nationals last night.

The Pucara player was taken to the physio tent after the incident which happened towards the end of the game, while the referee tried to work out who had done what. Two All Blacks -- locks Jim Coe and Marty Brooke -- were expelled as a result, leaving their side to play out the remainder of the match with 13 men.

The clash was not a particularly dirty affair -- despite the sin-binning of several players -- but anyone who think these games are just a bit of fun for former internationals more interested in racking up beers than tries is sorely misguided.

Scoring opportunities were at a premium early on as defences dominated but the deadlock was broken after a New Zealand pass went astray in the 14th minute.

Centre Sebastian Salvat intercepted and fed Mathias Allen, who ran clear and placed the ball beneath the posts to make the score 5-0 to the Pumas.

It was 10-0 in the 30th minute when Pedro Lanza accepted a pass on the left wing and sprinted over in the corner.

New Zealand redoubled their efforts at the start of the second-half and 10 minutes in a three-move drive ended with Mark Moore tossing a perfect pass to the onrushing Jimmy Damu, who broke over the line with complete disregard for the Puma hanging off him.

The South Americans were down to 14 men following the temporary expulsion of hooker Mariano Bosch, but they forced the clincher when they returned to full strength.

A concerted effort under the All Blacks posts finished with centre Fabian Turnes going over to make the score 15-5.

Delighted Argentine prop, Manuel Aguirre, said afterwards: "We are very happy and excited. It was a very tough game for us -- we played against them when we were young and it was very difficult to beat them -- so really we are very happy. "We tackled a lot and put a lot of pressure on the All Blacks and we played very well. I think that the tackling was the main thing.'' All Black try scorer Damu said his side only had themselves to blame. "They took advantage of our mistakes. We made a lot of turnovers and they just capitalised on that,'' he said.

Bermuda 0 Iberians 5 Bermuda literally paid the penalty for their aversion to kicking for points, as they were banished to the role of spectators at this year's World Rugby Classic after a gruelling encounter against tournament debutants Iberian Classics.

A 15-yard run by Luis de Costa in the sixth minute that saw the back shred Bermuda's defence and go in over the left side for an unconverted try proved the difference between the two sides.

Continued on page 17 Bermuda out Continued from page 13 Yet the home side had only themselves to blame, as they carried the Bermudian hospitality to its extreme, choosing to follow the lead of the Iberians in eschewing the use of kicks to put points on the board.

Team manager Patrick McHugh afterwards pointed squarely at this tactic as the chief reason for the defeat.

"We could have won the game 9-5,'' said McHugh. "We should have taken the kicks. Just because the opposition choose not to, that does not mean we shouldn't, it's all about winning.

"We made a lot of basic mistakes, not retaining possession was the main thing, along with going into tackles, into rucks, into mauls and losing the ball.. .turnovers.

"We knew they were ripe for the picking and thought we'd win the game, not easily, but edge it, we really did. It just didn't happen.'' Defensively the Spanish/Portuguese utilised to perfection the `bend but don't break' rearguard once they achieved the advantage, leaving few gaps for Bermuda's wing speedsters to exploit.

Captain Bobby Hurdle stood tall for the home side, dominating the rucks and mauls with his size and sheer strength, but his efforts ultimately proved futile and it was the Iberians looking forward to facing either Canada or United States in Saturday's Plate Final.

"In the first place our objective was to get to the final of the Plate, so this was always going to be our most important game today,'' said captain Albert Navio via translator and team-mate Dominic Graville.

"We were both defending quite a lot, with a lot of hard tackling, a tough game and at the end of the day we wanted to win more and had the will to get there.''