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Pichot: `Our World Cup is over`

Gus Pichot: 'The World Cup is over'

Argentina captain Augustin Pichot admitted that it would be very difficult for his team to lift themselves for a third-place play-off against France on Friday, after the got knocked out of the World Cup with a 13-37 loss to South Africa in the semi-final on Sunday.

Despite achieving their best ever result in reaching the semi-finals, it was a bitterly disappointed Pichot who said that it would be hard for his team to find the motivation for the meaningless third-place play-off match against the host nation.

"Congratulations to South Africa, they played well today and they were better on the day," Pichot said.

"We gave everything from the start of the game, but they made us pay for our errors," he added.

When asked about how his team will prepare for their second encounter of the tournament against France - the Pumas beat the French in the tournament opener six weeks ago - he just shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know, the World Cup is over for us," he said.

Argentinian coach Marcello Loffreda also had nothing but praise for the South Africans.

"It was a really tough game," Loffreda said.

"South Africa is very good and they were very consistent [on Sunday].

"We unfortunately made a lot of errors.

"Against a top team you must concentrate all the time and that didn't happen today."

Loffreda said his team held out hope of a second-half rally, after trailing 6-24 at the break. But they found the Bok defence too strong to breach.

"After the try early in the second half [Manuel Contepomi scored in the 45th minute and his brother Felipe converted to narrow the gap to just 11 points] I thought that maybe we could come back.

"But the gap remained at 11 points and we couldn't score again.

"I thought that maybe if we landed a penalty we could play quickly and still have a chance.

"But I have to congratulate South Africa, they played a very good game," he said.