South Africa are red hot favourites for this match, but Argentina are in a rare run of form with wins against New Zealand and Australia under their belts. This should be an interesting game.
The first half
The Springboks dominated the first 10 minutes, racing out to a 17-0 lead, and it seemed they could score at will.
Then, the game shifted towards Argentina, and they had most of the run of play for the rest of the half. In that time, they managed to score 26 unanswered points through four entertaining tries. And it was only in the dying moments of the half that South Africa managed to wrestle back a little momentum and score a try to close the gap to 26-24.
The highlight of the half, for me, was Mapimpi, bravely putting his shoulder and body on the line to try and stop a rampaging Sclavi, a man twice his size, one metre out from his try line.
The second half
South Africa changed their tactics for the second half. Conservatism was back, and expansive play was a dirty word. They slowed play down where ever they could and played for penalties with their scrum dominance.
They kicked two early penalties to take a two point lead, and they maintained that until the 68 minute when Argentina managed to get in behind South Africa’s defence and force a penalty to narrowly take the lead again.
South Africa had the chance to take the lead late in the match off an obviously milked penalty, but the ball missed to the left of the posts. There was enough time for a 22 drop out and Argentina kicked long and defended for their lives, eventually securing a ruck penalty to end the game and secure the win.
This was a great game of rugby and I would definitely recommend watching.
Argentina: 29
Tries: Carreras, Matera, Sclavi, Albornov
Conversions: Albornov 3
Penalties: Albornov
South Africa: 28
Tries: Fassi, Kriel, Reinach
Conversions: Pollard 2
Penalties: Pollard 2, Libbok
