GENOA, Italy (AP) — Argentina notched its first win since July only after it labored past Italy 19-14 in Nations Championship rugby on Saturday.
For most of an error-filled, stop-start match the Pumas enjoyed three-quarters of the possession and territory but kept turning it over to an Italy side that also struggled to use the ball. Discipline was poor — there were 32 penalties, split evenly.
It was 7-7 at halftime and Argentina led for the first time in the 55th minute then quickly made it 19-7. However, two yellow cards dropped the Pumas to 13 men and a penalty try to Italy gave the home side hope.
Italy had a last-minute penalty and aimed for a corner lineout but flyhalf Paolo Garbisi kicked it dead and the Azzurri couldn’t steal a first win against Argentina in 18 years.
“We put our heart and soul into it and played to win but we made mistakes that are unacceptable at this level,” Italy coach Gonzalo Quesada said.
“I have a lot of faith in this team, almost more than they do themselves. We gave Argentina a poor performance. I’m proud of our response but we could have won it, and this feeling of unfinished business remains.”
Italy has lost six straight since beating England in Rome in March. Next weekend comes Fiji, also winless in the championship.
Argentina has finally ended a five-game winless run, and goes to title-chasing France next.
“What we improved was our connection and cohesion compared to last week (lost to Ireland 42-12), especially during the worst moments of the match,” Argentina coach Felipe Contepomi said.
“We also minimized unforced errors but there are still too many for the international level. I think we're on the right track. It wasn’t as spectacular a victory (over Italy) as in the past, but the team's character was spectacular and admirable.”
Italy started brilliantly, running the short side from halfway and winger Monty Ioane charging onto a grubber kick by center Leonardo Marin to score in the fifth minute. White-helmeted flanker Manuel Zuliani turned over the Pumas twice in his 22 and Tommaso Allan just missed a 51-meter penalty kick attempt.
But then the Pumas dominated the rest of the first half, even with flyhalf Tomas Albornoz in the sin-bin, with little to show. Their scrum conceded three penalties and they kept coughing up ruck penalties in Italy's 22. The Pumas even went 23 phases but crashed against the Italian wall.
Italy didn't crack until near halftime when a Pumas driving maul carried hooker Bautista Bernasconi across in his first test start in place of injured skipper Julian Montoya.
The second-half action was little better in the Genoa sunshine until the Pumas, in their 11th time in Italy's 22, worked an overlap try for right winger Rodrigo Isgró.
Replacement lock Enoch Opoku-Gyamfi, on the field for four minutes, was sin-binned for Italy's accumulating offenses and Argentina struck immediately when left wing Mateo Carreras scored from an inside pass off a scrum.
Argentina finally looked clear and safe. But yellow cards to forwards Joel Sclavi and Efrain Elias and the penalty try to Italy made for a tense last 15 minutes.
Italy lost a fifth throw-in, though, couldn’t pin the Pumas back, and suffered a 10th straight loss to Argentina.
See AP’s full rugby coverage here
Italy's Monty Ioane is tackled by Argentina's player Bautista Delguy during the Nations Championship rugby match between Italy and Argentina in Genoa, Italy, Saturday Nov. 14, 2026. (Tano Pecoraro/LaPresse via AP)
Italy's Monty Ioane tackles Argentina's Bautista Delguy during the Nations Championship rugby match between Italy and Argentina in Genoa, Italy, Saturday Nov. 14, 2026. (Tano Pecoraro/LaPresse via AP)
Italy's Monty Ioane runs with the ball during the Nations Championship rugby match between Italy and Argentina in Genoa, Italy, Saturday Nov. 14, 2026. (Tano Pecoraro/LaPresse via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Airlines across the U.S. worked to recover from the longest nationwide ground stop in 25 years that canceled more than 2,500 flights Saturday, spread ripple effects around the world, stranded passengers and forced pro and college sports teams to scramble for alternate transportation.
New technology being added to the nation’s air traffic control system overloaded antiquated equipment and caused “intermittent” communications and radar gaps, leading to the flight shutdown of more than four hours, Trump administration officials said.
Airports were slowly returning to normal, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said, with planes taking flight and landing. But the effects could be felt for days, with officials saying the system would likely return to normal in time to handle the Thanksgiving travel rush.
The nationwide stop was the first since January 2023, when another key Federal Aviation Administration computer system that sends notices to pilots malfunctioned, and the second since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Andrew Charlton, an aviation consultant, said the stoppage on Friday had affected about a quarter of the 45,000 flights in the U.S. each day.
“The knock-on effect of that is incredible,” said Charlton, managing director of Aviation Advocacy. “The aircraft doesn’t just fly from A to B and back to B and then stop. It then moves onto C and then over to E and around and around and around. It is, of course, exacerbated if you’re talking about long-haul flights, international flights over the Atlantic or over the Pacific.”
At airports across the U.S., passengers stared at screens showing delays or rushed to find buses or trains to their destinations.
Emily Brown and her 14-year-old daughter waited more than four hours Friday at the Dallas airport for their flight to Columbus, Ohio, before giving up. They were traveling to surprise her daughter’s best friend. Instead, she had to settle for phoning the friend through tears in the airport, Brown said.
“She saved up her money to buy her own ticket, and she’s planned this whole weekend,” Brown said. “Now we’re not sure when we’re gonna be able to go.”
A cheerful Southwest Airlines gate agent greeted passengers at Dallas Love Field at dawn Saturday with “Good morning, good morning,” but then repeatedly said all flights were full and asked passengers to have boarding passes ready to expedite the process and help keep flights moving.
Sports teams scheduled to play this weekend adjusted game start times, searched for hotel rooms, rescheduled flights and chartered buses.
Auburn University's football team opted to take a bus to Mississippi State and the Saturday start time was pushed back from noon ET to 4:15 p.m. Other universities affected by the stoppage included Baylor, Washington, Kansas State, Minnesota and No. 19 Ole Miss, which did not plan to fly until Saturday morning for its game against Oklahoma.
More than 2,500 flights were canceled in the U.S. Saturday and hundreds more were delayed, according to FlightAware, a website that tracks flight disruptions.
Corbyn Wascher's flight was on the tarmac at Charlotte Douglas International Airport for four hours Friday on his way home to Moline, Illinois, from a conference in Miami. The 37-year-old high school teacher paid $100 to take an Uber to a hotel 25 minutes from the airport after he was unable to find a flight until Saturday afternoon to Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
At London’s Heathrow Airport, several flights to and from the U.S. were listed as delayed or canceled Saturday, including American Airlines flights to Dallas and Los Angeles, and a British Airways flight to New York’s JFK Airport. A Delta flight from Atlanta, an American flight from Miami and a United flight from Chicago were also listed as canceled.
“While U.S. flights have resumed, there may be some follow-on disruption as airlines work to rebook affected passengers and get all services back to normal,” said Tim Johnson, consumer director at the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told reporters at the White House that no one was in any danger as more than 3,000 flights in the air at the time of the grounding order landed safely Friday.
Duffy blamed Congress for failing to approve more funding for new technology, while downplaying the fact that trying to implement new fixes overtaxed the system. He suggested more disruptions might occur.
“We didn’t think we would have this kind of outage. We did,” he said. “We were able to review what went wrong, and then reboot the system and go. But, you will have more of these.”
Duffy said the failure Friday involved old equipment and was not linked to the FAA’s new AI-powered system, which the agency is rolling out to help predict problems in the sky.
The problem was due to updating a system that can never shut down, Charlton said.
“What you’re watching here is trying to change the tires of your car when the car’s going at 80 miles an hour down the expressway, because nothing stops in aviation,” Charlton said. “It’s a 24/7 operation. And to make changes on the fly, if you’ll pardon that pun, is incredibly complex and dangerous.”
The FAA has already replaced thousands of old copper wires with fiber optic lines and upgraded hundreds of radio systems as part of the overhaul that began last year after Congress approved $12.5 billion of funding. Duffy and the White House are pushing for $30 billion more to complete the work.
The problem appeared similar to a regional air traffic control communication outage in September that snarled hundreds of flights across the Northeast, although that disruption was linked to a construction crew cutting a fiber optic line. Aging equipment was also blamed for the brief radar outages last year that disrupted Newark airport.
Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said the difference this time was the nationwide scale of the disruption, which left controllers unable to reliably talk to pilots.
“If you don’t have that ability, whether it’s because the old wires that they have are just run down or for whatever reason, you’ve got to stop airplanes on the ground and not put them in the air, where you’re going to risk not being able to communicate with them,” said Arroyo, a former United Airlines pilot.
Friday’s ground stop also differed from the one after 9/11 because planes were not being told to land immediately and pilots likely were able to communicate with ground controllers at airports, Arroyo said.
Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska, and Golden from Seattle. Associated Press journalists David Keaton in Berlin; Stephen Hawkins in Dallas; Mead Gruver in Fort Collins, Colorado; Jessica Hill in Las Vegas; Ali Swenson in Chicago; Alex Veiga and Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles; Seung Min Kim and Aamer Madhani in Washington; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; and Brian Melley in London contributed to this report.
Passenger watch as workers unload luggage from a United plane as flights are delayed at Los Angeles International Airport Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Passengers wait as flights are delayed inside a terminal at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
The sun sets over Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in DFW Airport, Texas, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights nationwide. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
A passenger moves through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport as all flights are canceled or delayed, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
People wait at a terminal at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Arlington, Va., after the FAA issued a nationwide ground stop. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
An agent helps travelers at a ticketing desk at LaGuardia Airport in New York, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights nationwide. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
