Rugby Championship winners South Africa celebrate in Mbombela on Saturday. Picture: Anton Geyser/Gallo Images
The Springboks produced a top performance to power to a thumping 48-7 win over Argentina to win the 2024 Rugby Championship in style at the Mbombela Stadium on Saturday night.
Four tries in the first half and a further three in the second made sure that there wouldn’t be any surprises for the Boks as they deservedly clinched the title.
The Boks only lost one game in the competition, by one point against Argentina in Santiago, and showed that they are worthy champions.
Here are five talking points from the game.
The Springbok pack followed up their strong showing in Santiago with an even more dominant performance in Mbombela as they absolutely destroyed the Argentinian pack. Led by the world’s best loosehead Ox Nche, the Bok front row drilled the Los Pumas front row backwards time after time.
Their incredible scrum dominance led to their first two tries of the match, with fullback Aphelele Fassi running a great line after a big scrum to score, while another huge scrum put them on the front foot and ended with flank Pieter-Steph du Toit reaching over to dot down. The only surprise was Argentina not receiving a yellow card despite all of the scrum penalties against them.
The start of this match was eerily similar to the one in Santiago, but crucially the Boks managed to rally and not allow Argentina to fight back, taking an important lead into the halftime break. Last weekend the Boks flew into a 17-0 lead, before Los Pumas powered back to lead 26-22 at the break.
This time the Boks were 14-0 up early, before Argentina scored their first try, with the hosts then 17-7 up after a 21st minute penalty to scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse. The Boks then backed that up with two tries in the final 10 minutes of the half, a second to Fassi and one to the brilliant Cheslin Kolbe, as they powered into a 27-7 halftime lead.
Having missed two crucial kicks in the Boks’ tight one-point loss in Santiago, the second an easy penalty arguably for the win, Libbok was heavily criticised by fans and pundits alike. Coach Rassie Erasmus responded by elevating him to the starting line-up for the important match.
With the kicking duties taken off his shoulders, as scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse was handed them, Libbok responded with an impressive performance, showing off his superb attacking skills, as well as brilliant kicking out of hand as he kept the visitors on the back foot throughout. The Boks will however need to find a kicker for when Libbok plays, as Hendrikse only kicked three from six.
Argentina went into the final game of the Rugby Championship with the proud record of being the most disciplined team having not received a single card over the competition, while the Boks went in with the most, having received seven cards. That was heavily reversed over the last match as Los Pumas dirtied their record with three cards.
They received two yellows and a red, which helped the Boks stay on top throughout, assisted by having more men on the park. Wing Mateo Carreras was yellowed for taking out his opposite Kurt-Lee Arendse in the air, replacement loose forward Pablo Matera got a deserved red for a dangerous cleanout and fullback Santiago Carreras a yellow for a deliberate knock down.
The Boks celebrated their first full Rugby Championship title, and enforcer Eben Etzebeth breaking Victor Matfield’s appearance record, in style as they finished the match with a flourish in front of a fired up Mbombela crowd. After Argentina kept the Boks quiet for 29 minutes in the second half, the hosts then ran riot in the final 11 minutes.
A huge maul was powered over for replacement hooker Malcolm Marx to dot down, a good attack featuring some impressive interplay finished with Du Toit crashing over for his second, and centre Jesse Kriel burst through to score with four minutes left.
The Boks then showed great defence to not allow Los Pumas to have the final say in the game as they attacked after the fulltime hooter.
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