Boks’ victory over scrappy Pumas is not enough
SOUTH AFRICA won the battle but lost the war following their 38-21 victory over illdisciplined Argentina at a sold-out King’s Park in Durban yesterday — a result that handed the 2022 Rugby Championship title to New Zealand.
The All Blacks top the standings with 19 points from their six games, one more than South Africa, who could not manage the tryscoring bonus point they needed to go with a 39-point winning margin on the scoreboard to claim the trophy.
Instead, Argentina ran them close, but were let down by their discipline as they received four yellow cards and conceded two penalty tries. The Boks also scored through number eight Jasper Wiese, loose-forward Siya Kolisi and replacement full-back Kurt-Lee Arendse.
The visitors looked dangerous every time they had ball in hand and scored three tries through scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou, back row Juan MartÃn Gonzalez and centre Matias Moroni, but spent much of the time on defence as they conceded 22 penalties in the game.
‘It’s tough, but we never take a win for granted and it is an honour to beat a great side like Argentina,’ said South Africa captain Kolisi.
‘The way we started, it was slow. But we were able to score some points. Our discipline also let us down a bit at times. We create so much, our game-plan is working, we just don’t convert those opportunities.’
Like Kolisi, South Africa coach Jacques Nienaber has bemoaned their inability to turn pressure in the opponents’ 22 into points this season, and it proved the case again in the first half as they only led 17-7 at the break.
Cynical play from the visitors led to yellow cards for forwards Marcos Kremer and Juan Martin Gonzalez, but the Boks could not capitalise. Wiese scored his first try in a green and gold jersey as the home side scrummed the ball over the line, before Kolisi crossed when he broke away from a maul and dived over.
Argentina scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou got a try back before half-time when he profited from some scrappy defence from the hosts.
Argentina had an excellent second score via loose-forward Gonzalez, as he showed excellent pace to race down the left-wing and dot down.
But the Boks’ power game and their Bomb Squad off the bench was sapping the energy of the visitors, and there were two more scores from driving mauls that ended as penalty tries.