Los Pumas edge Springboks in Santiago: Four talking points

The Rugby Championship will be going down to the wire in Mbombela after Argentina clinched a thrilling 29-28 win over the Springboks in Santiago on Saturday, to keep their chances alive heading into the final game.

The result saw Los Pumas move onto 14 points, while the losing bonus point from the Boks moved them to 19, meaning Argentina would need a big bonus point win to steal the trophy in South Africa.

In this weekend’s game, the Boks got off to a barn storming start, but allowed the hosts to power back, before a cagey second half saw few scoring opportunities leading to Argentina edging it.

Here are four talking points from the game:

Flying start to the match

The Boks got off to a flying start in the match and powered into a 17-0 lead after just 13 minutes. The first try was wonderfully worked after a lineout in Argentina’s 22m area, with a superb delayed pass from flyhalf Handre Pollard opening a hole for fullback Aphelele Fassi to ghost through and go over.

The second soon after was again built through good play, as the Boks attacked to just short of the hosts’ 22m area, where a short ball from scrumhalf Cobus Reinach found outside centre Jesse Kriel charging through a gap to score.

With their impressive early dominance it was then a surprise that after earning a penalty in Argentina’s half, the Boks chose to go for the shot at goal, with Pollard duly popping it over, instead of possibly kicking to the corner and trying to hammer home their advantage.

Costly yellow card sees Argentina fight back

After their slow start Argentina had managed to stem the tide with an impressive broken play score to left wing Mateo Carreras, followed by a yellow card to Bok left wing Kurt-Lee Arendse that ended up proving costly. The card was arguably harsh, with him sent to the bin for a high tackle and head contact, despite both players dipping and the initial contact being on the chest.

The hosts took immediate advantage of having an extra man with flank Pablo Matera finishing off a stylish attack that started with a switch of play, before prop Joe Sclavi showed strength to power his way over the tryline to give Argentina a 19-17 lead.

There was still time for two more tries in the half, with flyhalf Tomas Albornoz jinking his way over and converting his own try for Argentina, while Bok scrumhalf Cobus Reinach took a quick tap from a penalty and went over for an unconverted try in the corner, making it 26-22 at the break.

Scrappy second half helps Argentina shade it

A scrappy second half in the end helped Argentina to shade the contest with no tries scored in it, after the try fest first half saw seven dot downs. Just three penalties were scored, with Pollard slotting one, and replacement flyhalf Manie Libbok knocking over another to take a 28-26 lead after 50 minutes.

But from there the game became extremely stop start, with neither team able to gain any ascendancy, and that helped Argentina stay within reach, which paid off in the 68^th minute when Albornoz converted what proved to be the match winning penalty.

However, the Boks still had time to win the game and with their scrum firing on all cylinders it was expected that they would earn a penalty at some point. They eventually did, with just over a minute of play left, and although it should have been an easy three points, Libbok hooked his kick wide.

Scrum dominance unrewarded

The Springbok scrum was absolutely dominant over the match and the forwards can feel hard done by that their impressive work was unable to get them over the line in the end. The first scrum of the match set the tone as loosehead Ox Nche picked up his opposite Joe Sclavi and smashed him backwards for a scrum penalty.

Argentina did however manage to limit the damage over the rest of the first half, despite being under pressure throughout. They didn’t give away another penalty and managed to get the ball out fast on their own ball.

But the second half was a different story as the Boks started dominating again, led by the brilliant Nche, while hooker Malcolm Marx and replacement Vincent Koch also stepped it up, while the rest of the subs continued the good work when they came on.