The Rugby Championship will end with a gripping finale in Mbombela on Saturday (5pm kick-off) after the Springboks – due to some errors and a late missed penalty attempt – lost out by one point against Argentina at the weekend.
South Africa need only one point from the last encounter with Los Pumas in the Mbombela Stadium (5pm start) to become champions and add another cup to their brimming trophy cabinet.
But they will have to cut out the errors and fix the shoddy defence and ill-discipline that cost them this past weekend after the Argentinians launched a spirited fightback in Santiago del Estero, spurred on by their laser-shining fans, to claim a famous 29-28 win on Saturday night.
Bok head coach Rassie Erasmus lamented the error rate of his side and how they let their hosts back into the game.
“If we had done the things we should have in the game, it would not have gone down to the wire ...”
“If we had done the things we should have in the game, it would not have gone down to the wire and (depended) on one kick going over (which Manie Libbok missed),” Erasmus said after the match.
“There were lots of opportunities where we lost the ball in line-outs and when we were inside their 22m area, we gave away a penalty. It was not a great display from us.
“I was hoping he (Libbok) would kick it over, not just for us, but for him personally too.
“He kicked really well the whole week and in the warm-up, but that is pressure. He will get a lot of flack. But we should’ve won the game much earlier.”
How the Boks let a 17-0 lead slip after a brilliant start where they had Argentina under tons of pressure, is still a mystery.
There was an opportunity at 14-0 to keep the pressure on their opponents after the world champions won a penalty that could have gone to the corner to set up another rolling maul to extend the score with another potential try.
Springboks player ratings: Handré Pollard, Ox Nche stand-outs in losing cause in Argentina 🏉@CapeTimesSA @TheCapeArgus #Springboks #ARGvRSA #RugbyChampionshiphttps://t.co/2gyymmTlTp
The decision was to go for the easy three points, and it was successful, but a let-off for the home side, who didn’t know what hit them with the way the South Africans were dominating those opening exchanges.
“We wanted to win this game, but we also took a bit of a gamble leaving some of the guys at home,” Erasmus said.
“The loss is not nice, and we feel sad about that.
“I don’t want to say lessons learnt because it’s an old cliché, but for some of the younger guys, getting this experience in this stadium with the Argentinian support, how they loosen up a game, next time when they come here, they would know how it feels (to play here).
“They will now know what we mean when we say it’s brutal coming here.”
According to Erasmus, he was a bit nervous when they started like a house on fire, and although they’ve been good at chasing games, he feels the team should have put Los Pumas away when they were 17-0 up after 13 minutes, following tries by Aphelele Fassi and Jesse Kriel.
Time to shift the focus, a massive Test awaits in Mpumalanga next weekend 👀#Springboks #ForeverGreenForeverGold #ARGvRSA pic.twitter.com/RQkpChhH5w
— Springboks (@Springboks) September 21, 2024
A contentious yellow card to wing Kurt-Lee Arendse swung the momentum to the home side, and from there they scored four unanswered tries to take control of the match.
“They exploited the yellow card really well and got outside our defence when Kurt-Lee was off. If I’m correct, they scored two tries in that time. That was the momentum shift,” the Bok mentor said.
“No excuses in the second half, though, we were 15 men and it was a close-fought battle.
“Look, we never saw ourselves as the favourites because we left a couple of guys at home. But Argentina deserves compliments because we still think they played better than us, even if Manie kicked the penalty over.”
Points scorers
Springboks 28 – Tries: Aphelele Fassi, Jesse Kriel, Cobus Reinach. Conversions: Handré Pollard (2). Penalties: Pollard (2), Manie Libbok (1).
Argentina 29 – Tries: Mateo Carreras, Pablo Matera, Joel Sclavi, Tomas Albornoz. Conversions: Albornoz (3). Penalties: Albornoz (1).