Wales' hopes of a third Rugby World Cup semi-final under Warren Gatland were dashed in a gut-wrenching quarter-final defeat to Argentina at the Orange Velodrome in Marseille.
Despite trailing 0-10 in the first half, the Pumas fought back to triumph 29-17 and book a ticket to the final four for the third time, where either New Zealand or Ireland will await.
In a chaotic first half where Wales' numbers fell off their shirts and referee Jaco Peyper hobbled off with a calf injury, Wales made their early tackles to perfection and launched a rapid attack to devastating effect in the 14th minute.
Working the ball out from the scrum, Gareth Davies and Dan Biggar linked up in the centre for the latter to dash through the posts, before he shook off a pectoral injury and increased Wales' lead to 10-0 with a 21st-minute penalty.
However, Argentina - who lose Santiago Chocobares to a head injury - ended the opening period in the ascendancy and reduced the arrears through a pair of Emiliano Boffelli penalties, the second of which came from Josh Adams's controversially unpunished shoulder barge on Tomas Cubelli, sparking a melee between the two sets of players.
With the momentum on their side, Argentina picked up where they left off in a frenetic start to the second 40, and another two Boffelli penalties - including a scorcher from inside his own half - sent the South Americans ahead for the first time on the evening.
That slender advantage was quickly wiped out, though, as in the 57th minute, replacement scrum-half Tomos Williams produced a slick feint to split the defence and had the simple job of running through acres of open space to score.
While Wales' Adams counted himself lucky to avoid the sin bin in the first half, Argentina's Guido Petti then caught Nick Tompkins square in the face with his shoulder, but the Bordeaux lock escaped punishment as the Pumas continued their unrelenting pressure on the Wales defence.
Gatland's men held out at first, but such pressure would eventually tell in the 68th minute as Joel Sclavi forced his way over the line, before Boffelli propelled Argentina into a two-point lead heading into a nail-biting final 10 minutes.
A sweeping Wales move instigated by Rio Dyer almost saw Louis Rees-Zammit dive over on the left in the 75th minute, but a spectacular try-saving tackle from Matias Moroni denied the 22-year-old, before Nicolas Sanchez intercepted Sam Costelow's pass and ran half the length of the field to put the tie to bed - Boffelli added another last-gasp penalty for good measure.
Ben Knapton
