2024-09-22 15:07:25
The Argentine national team overturned a 17-0 partial to win against the Springboks by 29-28 at the Mother of Cities Stadium in Santiago del Estero. The tournament will therefore close next week in Nelspruit against South Africa.
South Africa arrived in Santiago del Estero with their minds set on continuing to reap successes. Rassie Erasmus’ team had just won four consecutive games and faced the Pumas who, although they had not managed to achieve the desired consistency, achieved two resounding victories in the tournament. The first in their debut in New Zealand against the local team by 38 to 30 and the second in Santa Fe in a game that went down in history for being the one with the highest number of points that Australia received (67-27). Now both teams were looking for a new victory. The Springboks to be crowned champions and repeat the title achieved in 2019 and Los Pumas to harbor the hope of reaching the last game with the intact chance of being able to travel to Nelspruit, South African land, with the mathematical possibility and the illusion of winning the tournament for the first time in history.
A first half from less to more
The Argentine team started with several inaccuracies in Santiago del Estero and allowed South Africa to score easy points in the first minutes. Back Aphelele Fassi found a gap in the Argentine defense and dove into the in-goal area. A few minutes later, center Jesse Kriel exposed the errors of the team led by Felipe Contepomi in marking and tackling, and flyhalf Handre Pollard added the conversion again to make it 14-0. In the next half, the flyhalf contributed a penalty and the home team found themselves 17-0 down on the scoreboard after a quarter of an hour.
But it clicked at just the right moment. Los Pumas began to give dynamism to their game and to move the pack of heavy South African forwards. Mateo Carreras stepped up the turbo and scored the first goal for the albicelestes.
The visiting team showed signs of fatigue and made mistakes of their own. Kurt-Lee Arendse was shown a yellow card for a high tackle. The Argentine team continued to hurt and managed two successive conquests to take advantage of the extra man. That’s how Pablo Matera and Joel Sclavi scored tries. The Pumas were now different and it was noticeable. The public in the Mother of Cities Stadium also pushed and the intense heat was becoming more and more noticeable.
Argentine flyhalf Tomás Albornoz scored two of the three conversions and missed a penalty from halfway. But the revenge for the Tucuman came quickly, as he managed to score Argentina’s fourth try and add the conversion to go ahead by 26 to 17 after being down 17 to 0. However, towards the end of the first half, Springboks scrum-half Cobus Reinach put the Argentine defence to sleep after an important stoppage and with a quick move brought his team closer to the score to close the first period with Los Pumas 26 to 22 ahead. After an adverse start, the Argentines showed that they could do nothing less than against the world champions in an electrifying first half that will be remembered.
Second half with gritted teeth
It was a second half not for the faint of heart. Right from the start, Handre Pollard scored a penalty just a few minutes into the second half. South Africa looked a little more comfortable, relying on their physical strength and their footwork.
The Pumas tried, but were once again inaccurate. Albornoz missed another penalty and was unable to extend the lead. The opener was good at directing the team and kicking during the development of the game, but he only needed to fine-tune some shots at the posts.
Manie Libbok came on and put his team ahead with another penalty to leave the score 28-26 for the two-time world champions. The team led by Felipe Contepomi generated a good attack with their backs that led to a penalty in their favour, which Albornoz scored to put Felipe Contepomi’s team back in front by a minimum (29-28).
The match was different from the first half, tougher, more disputed, with less attack and more defense, and so the minutes passed. There were 10 left and Los Pumas beat South Africa in another demonstration that the victories against New Zealand and Australia had not been a fluke.
The last five minutes were exciting. The Argentine team had two lineouts inside the opponent’s 22-yard line, but Rassie Erasmus’s men responded intelligently and escaped. In the next one, South Africa advanced in the Argentine half and forced an accessible penalty for Libbok, but the fly-half deflected his shot and gave the Argentine team the victory.
It was the final and a victory for Los Pumas, by 29 to 28, to leave behind the ghost of the match against Australia de La Plata (how different it would have been today with the score tied).
In any case, with this victory, Felipe Contepomi’s team managed to beat all three rivals in the same tournament. Now with this victory, they will travel to South Africa in search of the historic feat of winning the Rugby Championship title against the two-time world champions on their home turf.
On Saturday in Nelspruit South Africa will go for revenge and Los Pumas will invite us once again to dream, meanwhile tonight there is only time to celebrate and enjoy this 29 to 28 against the two-time world champions.