South Africa win away over Argentina in dour World Cup warm-up match

Santiago Carrera of Argentina runs with the ball against Jean-Luc du Preez of South Africa during a test match between Argentina and South Africa. Photo / Getty Images.

South Africa turned the tables on Argentina by dominating their Rugby World Cup warm-up for a 24-13 rebound win at Estadio Velez Sarsfield this morning.

The Pumas were barely contained by South Africa in a 22-21 win at Ellis Park last weekend at the end of the Rugby Championship.

But trailing 10-3 at halftime, Springboks tries by wingers Makazole Mapimpi and Canan Moodie in the first six minutes of the new half rewarded the platform that was laid in the first half. They had three other tries ruled out - two held up over the line in the first half and one for obstruction.

Manie Libbok added four penalty kicks but also missed four kicks at goal. But by finishing with three consecutive successes he put the result out of reach of the Pumas.

A couple of early Libbok misses from the tee piled on the frustration of No 8 Jasper Wiese being held up after 15 phases in the fourth minute, and lock Jean Kleyn suffering the same fate in the 27th.

Meanwhile, the Pumas’ Gonzalo Bertranou scored the first try of the match from a quick tap penalty and flanker Franco Mostert was sin-binned for a late tackle on Pumas first-five Santiago Carreras. Emiliano Boffelli’s penalty gave them a seven-point lead at halftime.

The Boks reset at the break and produced exhilarating tries off both wings.

Replacement center Jesse Kriel offloaded to fullback Damian Willemse who sent in Mapimpi. Then Moodie claimed a cross-field kick from Libbok and ran in.

Their superiority wasn’t obvious on the scoreboard until Libbok got his radar back on to extend the lead to 24-13 with 10 minutes to go.