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Argentina advance after winning three of their four Pool C games

Argentina (36) 64 Tries: Hernandez, Moroni, Agulla, Matera, Noguera, Alemanno, Senatore, Montoya, Cubelli Con: Gonzalez Iglesias 4, Socino 4 Pen: Gonzalez Iglesias Namibia (7) 19 Tries: Tromp, Greyling, Jantjies Con: Kotze 2

Argentina prepared for next Sunday's World Cup quarter-final against France or Ireland by scoring nine tries in an comfortable Pool C win over Namibia.

The Pumas, already qualified, secured a bonus point before the break with tries by Juan Martin Hernandez, Matias Moroni, Horacio Agulla and Facundo Isa.

Lucas Nogueira, Matias Alemanno, Leonardo Senatore, Julian Montoya and Tomas Cubelli added further tries.

Namibia's three tries came from Johan Tromp, JC Greyling and Eugene Jantjies.

Argentina finished second in the pool on 15 points, four behind pool winners New Zealand.

Namibia bow out of their fifth World Cup without a win.

Can Argentina surprise the heavyweights?

On this evidence, neither France nor Ireland will fancy facing the Pumas at the Millennium Stadium next weekend.

Argentina's youngest World Cup starting XV for 16 years showed adventure and were creative as their youthful exuberance shone through.

They showed no mercy as they demolished Namibia, who had secured their first ever World Cup point in their previous outing, with free-flowing and adventurous play.

Argentina secured a bonus point four minutes before half time before adding a further five tries, including three in the space of 10 second half minutes.

This was not Daniel Hourcade's strongest side, the head coach likely to recall his influential and experienced players for next weekend, yet they still managed to score more points against Namibia than world champions New Zealand managed last month.

Namibia struggled to cope with Argentina's pace and Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino almost scored one of the tries of the tournament after a great turn of speed before eventually being stopped.

Argentina football legend Diego Maradona, who danced in the changing room following last week's defeat of Tonga, said he will return if the Pumas make the semi-finals.

Based on this performance, Ireland or France will have their work cut out to prevent that.

What they said

Argentina captain Martin Landajo: "We knew we had to play well against Namibia and we did that, even though there were mistakes.

"Now we can think about the quarter-finals, though I can honestly say I don't care if we play Ireland or France. We will see who we get."

Namibia captain Rohan Kitshoff: "We were exposed a bit, it's not the way we wanted to leave the World Cup, but we showed a lot of heart until the end."

Teams

Argentina: Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino, Matias Moroni, Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, Juan Pablo Socino, Horacio Agulla, Juan Martin Hernandez, Martin Landajo, Lucas Noguera, Julian Montoya, Juan Pablo Orlandi, Guido Petti Pagadizabal, Matias Alemanno, Pablo Matera, Javier Ortega Desio, Facundo Isa.

Replacements: Juan Imhoff for Gonzalez Iglesias (65), Marcelo Bosch for Hernandez (51), Tomas Cubelli for Landajo (53), Agustin Creevy for Montoya (70), Ramiro Herrera for Orlandi (53), Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe for Alemanno (60).

Not Used: Marcos Ayerza, Leonardo Senatore.

Sin Bin: Bosch (53).

Namibia: Chrysander Botha, Johan Tromp, JC Greyling, Johan Deysel, Conrad Marais, Theuns Kotze, Damian Stevens, Jaco Engels, Torsten van Jaarsveld, Aranos Coetzee, Janco Venter, Tjiuee Uanivi, Rohan Kitshoff, Wian Conradie, Danie Dames.

Replacements: Russell van Wyk for Botha (57), Eugene Jantjies for Stevens (65), Johannes Redelinghuys for Engels (52), Louis van der Westhuizen for van Jaarsveld (52), AJ de Klerk for Coetzee (48), Renaldo Bothma for Venter (6), Thinus du Plessis for Dames (58).

Not Used: Heinrich Smit.

Sin Bin: Greyling (11), du Plessis (76).

Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France).

Attendance: 30,198