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A late come back by South Africa saw Argentina beaten at the death, 30-23 this afternoon in Nelspruit. Leading by ten points with as many minutes remaining the visitors lead disappeared as the Springboks scored 17 late points to complete the win.
The three tries to two triumph gives South Africa four competition points and Argentina one. With New Zealand having thoroughly outperformed Australia this morning the teams are in second and third positions in the Rugby Championship.
Argentina will have an opportunity to rebound next weekend in Salta as will Australia in Wellington. The talk during the week is likely to favor an Argentine victory than that of a Wallaby one.
What Los Pumas will need to address is the impact of thre bench. Today in Nelspruit South Africa’s replacements got the job done. Argentina’s were unable to provide the same contribution. Hourcade alluded to the fact post match. “we had good control for seventy minutes and in the final ten we commited some errors. We lost control and that was it for us“.
It has cost Argentina in the past. The 2014 test match in Salta being a case in point. Hourcade is making no excuses and knows that the competition is only going to get tougher. “today we played a good match but what is coming will be even more challenging than today. There are areas to correct and others in which we need to enforce to stop them from playing their game“.
Downing Hourcade’s team was a last minute score from Lions number 8 Warren Whiteley. His fine performance together with that of starting flanker Teboho Mohoje and replacement Jaco Kriel were crucial to the final outcome.
For Whiteley’s Super Rugby colleague Elton Jantjies though, the match was not so memorable. Los Pumas put the fly half under all sorts of pressure and errors resulted.
Following an early missed penalty from Jantjies the Springboks scored the game’s opening points. The fly half linked with Racing 92’s Johan Goosen who put away winger Ruan Combrinck for a 7th minute try. Jantjies added the conversion.
Argentina’s disappointing start was not helped when, in the 21st minute, Manuel Montero was yellow carded for a tip tackle on Damian de Allende. Prior to the sanction Los Pumas had gotten themselves on the board thorugh a Nicolás Sánchez penalty.
Miraculously without Montero the South Americans would take the lead. Sánchez added his second penalty in the 23rd minute before Argentina scored the try of the match two minutes later. Tucumán center Matías Orlando finished off superb collective play which starter within the Pumas half and saw many exchanges of passes. The final one saw Santiago Cordero throwing a cut-out pass to Orlando who scored in the corner.
The Springboks looked to have scored next through Lionel Mapoe. The try, though, was disallowed as replays showed that it was not valid. With that the Argentines held a 13-10 lead at the break.
Early in the second half it was South Africa’s left wing who saw yellow. Bryan Habana was yellow carded for tackling Cordero in the air. With a one-man advantage Los Pumas had a solid platform to build upon but were unable to trouble the scorers.
Instead it was Janjties who scored the first second half points. His 56th minute penalty levelled the scores. Nine minutes later his opposite, Sánchez, cancelled it out to restore Argentina’s three point lead. It then became ten as Cordero latched on to an unexpected chip from Sánchez. The 67th minute try was then converted by Sánchez to make it 23-10.
Post match Creevy singled out his team’s failure at the restart. “We had a poor restart after our try and that is where we lost the game. We followed it by giving away lots of penalties”.
With his side unable to trouble the scorers further, South Africa was able to turn around the match in the final ten minutes. Tries to Goosen and Whiteley in the 70th and 80th minutes and a 33rd minute penalty from Jantjies sunk the South Americans.
SCORERS
SOUTH AFRICA
Try: Combrinck, Goosen, Whiteley
Conversion: Jantjies (3)
Penalty: Jantjies (3)
Yellow Card: Habana
ARGENTINA
Try: Orlando, Cordero
Conversion: Sánchez (2)
Penalty: Sánchez (3)
Yellow Card: Montero
SOUTH AFRICA
15 Johan Goosen, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Teboho Mohoje, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Julian Redelinghuys, 2 Adriaan Strauss (capt.), Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20 Jaco Kriel, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Juan de Jongh, 23 Jesse Kriel
ARGENTINA
15 Joaquín Tuculet, 14 Santiago Cordero, 13 Matías Orlando, 12 Juan Martín Hernández, 11 Manuel Montero, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Martín Landajo, 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Juan Manuel Leguízamon, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Matías Alemanno, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Agustín Creevy (capt), 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro
Replacements: 16 Julián Montoya, 17 Felipe Arregui, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Javier Ortega Desio, 21 Tomás Cubelli, 22 Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 23 Ramiro Moyano
