Manie Libbok’s missed penalty with a minute remaining meant that Argentina continued their excellent Rugby Championship campaign by adding a 29-28 win over South Africa to their record victory over Australia and triumph in New Zealand earlier in the tournament.
Los Pumas’ first win over the Springboks since2018 now sets up a title decider in Nelspruit next weekend as Felipe Contepomi’s side, bursting full of the same attacking ambition we saw in that thrashing of the Wallabies, held on bravely in the second half against the power of South Africa’s scrum and replacements, which included Eben Etzebeth, who equalled Victor Matfield’s record of 127 caps for South Africa.
With the Springboks effectively getting two shots at securing the Rugby Championship title given their healthy lead in the table with two matches remaining, Rassie Erasmus rolled the dice. Siya Kolisi was not on the field but in the coaching box, with Erasmus making 10 changes. They will no doubt be back at full strength next Saturday.
Despite those alterations it was a typical start from South Africa; dominating the first scrum, wearing out Argentina’s pack with the close-range carries before the pace of Aphelele Fassi and Jesse Kriel’s sharp line carved open the hosts’ defence for two quick tries. Add in a penalty from Handre Pollard and the Springboks were out to a 17-0 lead in a hurry.
Then came Argentina’s staggering response. Santiago Chocobares’ line break gave Argentina a foothold, racing on to an inside pass and breaking Marco van Staden’s tackle to put Mateo Carreras over for the opener.
With Kurt-Lee Arendse shown a yellow card for a high tackle on Carreras, Argentina then made the most of that advantage. South Africa’s blitz defence was caught out by Juan Cruz Mallia’s offload, creating a two-on-one with Carreras sending Pablo Matera over to further cut the deficit.
Capping off the mini-comeback, Argentina then went ahead after some brilliant work from Joaquin Oviedo to keep the ball in play as a maul hurtled towards the touchline, finding Joel Scalvi before the powerful prop scored to put Argentina ahead.
Arendse returned, the bunker deeming that his tackle did not need to be upgraded, but Argentina remained in full flow. Even when the attacks didn’t go to plan, with the ball escaping a ruck following Thomas Gallo’s tapped penalty close to the line, they did not panic - Tomas Albornoz scampering over to score to Argentina’s fourth, from 17-0 down to leading 26-17 in 21 minutes.
And there was still time before the break for Cobus Reinach to snipe over in the corner, bringing a wild half in the Santiago heat to an end with Argentina leading 26-22.
The second half was never going to match the fast tempo of the first, as penalties from Pollard and his replacement Manie Libbok nudged South Africa ahead.
Albornoz, meanwhile, was off-target again from the tee, his third miss, and with South Africa’s scrum churning out penalty after penalty, they were able to increasingly control possession and territory. Yet as time went on, they failed to put Argentina away.
It took a desperate tap tackle from Fassi to stop Albornoz scoring his second after a break, with Argentina settling for three points to sneak back in front. They might have had more had it not been for blowing two late lineouts deep in South Africa’s 22, with Etzebeth, of course, poaching one.
And Argentina should have paid the price for that lack of execution when Gonzalo Garcia failed to roll away from a ruck, only for Libbok to miss the match-winning penalty wide to the left. Argentina still had to pull off an enormous defensive stand with the clock in the red, and did just that to spark joyous scenes in Santiago and set up next week’s decider.
