Argentina secured their place in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals after defeating a valiant Georgia 25-7.

Felipe Contepomi's 13 consecutive points at the Arena Manawatu in Palmerston North were the difference for an at-times unconvincing Argentina, who secured the victory after coming from behind at half-time.

Georgia, however, will be proud of their efforts against their more-fancied opponents, especially after having only played Romania - a match they won 25-9 - just four days ago.

Georgia's tendencies to give away penalties in the second half, however, meant the Pumas were always going to advance from Pool B at the expense of Scotland.

The reward for the 2007 Rugby World Cup bronze medallists?  A date with New Zealand in the quarter-finals.

Argentina went into the match knowing only one point was needed if they wanted to advance at the expense of Scotland, but they looked anything but assured of quarter-final contention in the opening half.

Despite going into the match looking for maximum points, their desire to take three points illustrated their shift in focus from scoring tries to scoring points in order to get the job done.

Captain Felipe Contepomi missed two early penalty attempts in a sign of the poor quality of rugby that was to come for the next 25 minutes.

The Pumas finally scored their first points of the match after 32 minutes thanks to Juan Jose Imhoff, who made the most of Argentina's first real signs of momentum when he pushed off two defenders to score his side's opening try.

Their lead lasted no more than five minutes, however, as Georgia fought back through an impressive try of their own. Wily winger Alexander Todua kicked the ball past two defenders before Lasha Khlamadze regathered to equalise for the Lelos.

Malkhaz Urjukashvili then converted the try to give Georgia a shock 7-5 lead at half-time to silence the heavily Argentine crowd of 13,754 at Arena Manawatu.

Argentina regained the lead in the 50th minute through a Contepomi penalty - his first successful kick of the match - as signs of a swing of momentum in favour of the favourites were hinted

Contepomi was in the action 15 minutes later when he dotted over to score his side's second try, before converting his own try to extend Argentina's lead to 11 points.

Argentina then iced the cake on their qualification when Augustin Gosio regathered a beautiful low kick to score the Pumas' third try in the final minute of the match.

It rubbed salt into the wound of Georgia who, despite playing just four days ago, showed that passion and patriotism will always overcome a short turnaround on the world stage.

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