Boks thump tame Pumas
A clinical and ultimately resounding performance
THE Springboks exorcised the ghost of Mendoza with a record-breaking performance of fist-pumping authority in their Rugby Championships opener here yesterday.
By recording the highest score in the championship and its forerunner, they would have drawn a trademark smile from Madiba, while, if she was alive, given Evita something to cry about.
Last year, in their most recent match against the Pumas, the Boks were fortunate to walk off with a 16-16 draw. Yesterday that lamentable effort was consigned to memory with a ruthless and clinical performance.
This victory was built on a cast iron forward effort. The Argentines felt the squeeze in the scrums and at the breakdown, but it was in the lineout from which the Boks were able to launch with the greatest intent.
The Springbok lineout towered to heights the visitors could only aspire. Juandre Kruger showed why he is regarded so highly by rising not just above the opposition, but also to the occasion. After Flip van der Merwe upped the ante with a sterling display in the same position in the team’s last test against Samoa, Kruger had something to prove.
It allowed the Boks to launch their vaunted maul and the tourists had no answer.
If Kruger displayed aerial artistry, his lock partner Eben Etzebeth provided the artisan’s commitment. His craft may be darker but it is as visually arresting.
Almost as stirring was the sight of the fit again Duane Vermeulen delivering his Wild West-like swagger to proceedings. As a collective though, the Bok forwards deserve kudos.
The surfeit front-foot ball enabled Ruan Pienaar to deliver crisp service which allowed Jean de Villiers, JJ Engelbrecht and Willie le Roux to break into full gallop.
To compound matters for the visitors, Morne Steyn missed just one of his 13 attempts at goal for a personal haul of 28 points.
Worse, with the Pumas’ back broken, the Bok bench helped sustain the momentum in the final quarter. Fourie du Preez showed that within him still resides the desire to take his game to unattained levels. He was near his intuitive best.
The Pumas suffered near chronic setpiece failure. Even when they won possession it required time to bring it under control, by which time the Springbok were all over them.
The new scrum laws were always going invite intense scrutiny and it was the Pumas who fluffed their lines in the initial skirmishes. They engaged early off the first setpiece, before scrumhalf Martin Landajo fed crookedly in the second scrum for another short arm sanction.
The visitors were perhaps unfortunate to concede a penalty try after persistent Bok pressure in the 30th minute, when Eusebio Guinazo’s spoiling hand was deemed to have prevented the Boks from scoring.
Understandably coach Heyneke Meyer wore a broad smile. “We wanted a special performance. We wanted to show how we can play. It was one of those days everything went right.”
Well, not everything. “I’m not happy about that last try. I’m actually quite cross,” the coach said about Felipe Contepomi’s effort.
Captain De Villiers agreed the Boks could have been even more ruthless. “We didn’t use all our opportunities. We still have a lot to work on.”