The Pumas set up a Rugby Championship decider in Mbombela on Saturday as they held on to record a 29-28 (halftime 26-22) victory over the Springboks in the sapping heat of the northern Argentinian town of Santiago del Estero.
Springbok replacement flyhalf Manie Libbok had a penalty two minutes from time to win it for the Boks – 35 metres out and to the right of the poles – but pulled his attempt wide and although South Africa regained possession from the 22 restart, the Pumas’ defence shut them out to complete the ‘triple crown’ of beating all three of the other SANZAAR nations in a single season.
There was not to be a miracle this time for Rassie Erasmus’s men, but they still hold the whip hand in the race for the title – they need only one point from the battle of the Lowveld to claim their first title since 2019, or they must prevent Argentina from a bonus-point win.
The winning score was a penalty goal by Pumas flyhalf Tomos Albornoz with 12 minutes remaining, the hosts’ only points of the second half after they had managed four tries in 20 first-half minutes.
It seemed as if the Boks had restored normal service after that shocking passage of lax tackling and a mounting penalty count, but they couldn’t add to their own tally of three first half tries by Aphelele Fassi (fullback), Jesse Kriel (centre) and Cobus Reinach (scrumhalf).
The first half was a riot of scoring as the Springboks took first blood to leap into a 17-0 lead in 13 minutes and then conceded 26 unanswered points in a blitzkrieg of four tries from the hosts in just 20 minutes.
The Boks roused themselves from the canvas to score their third try and seventh of the half on the stroke of halftime to trail by only four points at the break, which had seemed inconceivable in the opening phases as the visitors took what looked a commanding lead.
Everything had worked perfectly for the visitors. The first scrum resulted in a penalty and from the resulting lineout a slick backline move with Lukhanyo Am (centre) and Handre Pollard (flyhalf) swapping positions for the latter to fire a long pass for Fassi to fly through a gaping hole and score to the right of posts from 20 metres.
Kriel then picked a beautiful cut back with perfect timing and speed to race off the shoulder of Reinach and brush past a despairing tachle to score his 17th test try. Pollard converted to make it 14-0 after just eight minutes and take his personal career tally to 743 points to go past Morne Steyn and into second place on the all-time scoring list.
The Bok flyhalf added a penalty goal to stetch the lead to 17 points after 13 minutes at which point the Pumas had barely had a sniff of the ball. When that changed, boy did it change.
Two minutes later, left wing Matteo Carreras scampered down the flank after being given the overlap by fast hands and disconnected Bok defence and arguably then made a greater contribution when he was on the wrong end of an upright tackle by his direct opponent, Kurt-Lee Arendse, who was yellow carded for the third time in six matches this season.
The Pumas didn’t need the encouragement. Their tails were up and although Albornoz could not land the resulting penalty, their second try came down the absent Arendse’s wing when back rower Pablo Matera found himself having an unopposed run to the line.
The pressure was telling on the Boks and they bgean to concede penalties to give Pumas field position in the right hand corner. From a resulting lineout, prop Joel Sclavi took and inside pass to score from close range as a maul was shunted into touch.
Albornoz missed the conversion, but he made amends by gliding round the left edge of the Bok defence from 10 metres after a series a close range drives had been repelled. He converted his own try to make it 26-17 against a shellshocked Bok defence.
They needed field position and a lift and it came on the stroke of halftime. A penalty allowed Pollard to drill to the corner and when the Pumas were penalised for collapsing the resulting maul, Reinach tapped, ducked and darted on a diagonal run to the corner for his 14th try and 36 tests.
The break couldn’t come soon enough for the Boks – 17 points to the good at one point and now almost suddenly four points adrift. They began to put that right immediately on the restart.
Pollard added his second penalty to close the gap to one point and then his replacement Manie Libbok kicked the Boks back into the lead (28-26) in the 50th minute with his first shot at goal as Erasmus sent on his Bomb Squad. Libbok was joined by Elrigh Louw, Vincent Koch, Kwagga Smith and Eben Etzebeth, making a record-equalling 127th test appearance, as they flooded on in the 47th minute.
That’s the way it stayed for the next 18 minutes as the Boks largely controlled play until a Pumas break out led to a penalty after Gerhard Steenekamp (replacement prop) was harshly penalised for not rolling away when he was sandwiched in a ruck.
Albornoz slotted a simple penalty to give his side that one-point lead to tee-up a nail-biting final 12 minutes in which the Springboks twice had scrum possession in kickable penalty positions. The first ended in a free kick for the Pumas, the second went to ground but when the ball was moved wide Argentina were penalised for not rolling away to present Libbok’s opportunity. Alas it was not to be.
