Rugby Championship Review - Argentina 17 - 19 South Africa

‘Bullying’ is generally a pretty negative word.  Speak it and you are treated to images of crack-burning wedgies, Chinese burns and a child who is unfortunate enough to be half decent at maths with his head being flushed in a toilet bowl.  All good character building stuff...or rather soul destroying for a youngster.  But in rugby the idea of being the bully is an entirely positive attribute – especially in the case of matches between the Pumas and the Springboks, where complete dominance of the other side, to the point where they cannot function, is a key objective prior to the game.

Of course, there was no doubt who was the bully and who was the bespectacled child with his underpants pulled over his head when the 2 sides met in the first round of the Rugby Championship in South Africa.  The men in green literally obliterated their opponents, to the point where the Argentines frankly looked like they didn’t want to play any more – dropping off tackles and throwing abysmal intercepts.   The South Africans, though, were rampant, with the power of Willem Alberts and Duane Vermeulan proving to be particularly destructive.  Surely the South Americans couldn’t seriously hope to overturn such a drubbing just because they were at home?

Straight away though, it became pretty apparent that this wasn’t going to be anything like their last meeting.  The hosts had been embarrassed, and there was a typical South American fire in their eyes when they lined up against their ultra physical opponents on Saturday – a desire to right a few wrongs.  Lock Mariano Galarza snaffled a loose ball and delightfully chipped forwards, and the visitors were somewhere they hadn’t been for a fair while – under pressure.   Felipe Contepomi and Marcelo Bosch affected a turnover and, although they ran out of room and ball went into touch on the first attempt, they were not to be denied as they executed a slick lineout move that allowed Juan Manuel Leguizamon to wriggle over on the right.  Contepomi added a marvellous conversion and the Argentines had a dream start.

Whilst the Pumas had the bit between their teeth, the Springboks were looking as limp as a dead fish and another loose ball allowed Martin Landajo to scamper 50 metres down the right and put more pressure on the visitors.  Thankfully for the South Africans they were able to clear their lines and settle things down with a dreadful 5 minute series of scrums that never completed – a bad indication on the new engagement rules.  Despite the scrums looking more of a contest than last week, the Beast still had an advantage over Juan Figallo and managed to engineer a penalty, which Morne Steyn slotted.

The Pumas, though, had shown more intent and verve in the opening 10 minutes than they showed all game last week, and were rewarded when Bjorn Basson was penalised for offside, which allowed Contepomi to restore his side’s 7 point lead.  It should also be noted that the Argentine veteran is now so big time that he had a mini remote controlled landrover to bring his kicking tee on for him – as the kicking coach may be thinking, “why walk?”.  

Despite the promising start though, the Pumas were still showing lapses of judgement, which was obvious when they failed to clear their lines and it resulted in South African pressure and ultimately a try, following great passing by Steyn and JJ Engelbrecht to put Basson into the corner.  Steyn added the extras and we were all square.

The game then tightened up into the traditional arm wrestle as Argentina tried to batter down the South Africans with short balls, but the likes of Pablo Matera and Leonardo Senatore could find no way through the solid Springbok defensive line, marshalled well by Francois Louw.  The visitors in fact went close twice as first Ruan Pienaar almost got his hands on the ball over the tryline following a kick chase, before Juandre Kruger looked to have crossed before being pulled back for a knock on from Eben Etzebeth.  South Africa were going for the jugular, going for touch instead of goal from kickable penalties, but were held out by resilient Argentine defence and the game reverted back to its standard crash-bang-whallop routine in the middle of the park.

Not much was happening but, after Contepomi had missed a shot at goal from range, the hosts began to inch forward towards the Springbok line and, following a sharp dart from Lucas Amarosino, Bosch managed to squeeze himself through the tackles of Jannie Du Plessis and Engelbrecht to wriggle over for the try, which Contepomi converted.  The hosts once again had a 7 point lead with 3 minutes if the half to go, although this was long enough to Steyn to bang another kick over from range.

The second half began with drama of a different kind as Louw accused Mantera of gouging him – the replays were inconclusive but Mantera’s hands were dangerously close to Louw’s eyes, regardless.  He’s since been cited (but cleared) since the end of the game, but Walsh couldn’t see any foul play at the time, so Steyn had to make do with a 3-pointer for a separate offence to make it a one point game.  Soon it was back though to a standard affair of slow ball and strong defence with neither side able to break the other down – the only sparks came from when tempers occasionally boiled over and from when Senatore allegedly got a bit peckish and had a nibble of Etzebeth’s arm.  I find this odd as there are far meatier arms available to chew on in the Springbok pack, but the incident has earned Senatore a 9 week ban following a citing even if he did escape punishment on the pitch.  Ironically, it was the hosts who had the next penalty following a powerful scrum (in itself a miraculous improvement from the previous week) but the attempted kick from beyond half way fell agonisingly wide.

The tension and tempers was stepping up to new levels, so it made sense that, with 8 minutes left, Mr Cool himself, Morne Steyn, would step up to slot a penalty following a collapsed maul, with Marcos Ayerza the guilty party.  South Africa were ahead for the first time in the game and they never looked like relinquishing that lead as they pressurised the hosts to the end – despite opting for a lineout instead of a banker of a 3 points, for some reason.  The final whistle went, and another tight affair in Mendoza was brought to a close., with the scoreline settled at 17-19 in the visitors' favour.

South Africa may have had the win but this time the Pumas stood up to them and nearly came away with a victory they would probably have deserved.  It just goes to show – stand up to the bully and you never know what might happen.