Rugby Championship: South Africa vs Argentina

Argentina have won only one Rugby Championship game since joining the SANZAR competition – against Australia in Mendoza last year – and if they are to win a match this year, it is more likely to be at home in Buenos Aires next week rather than in Durban this week. They have been unable again this year to attack effectively, struggling to score tries other than through lineout driving mauls, and without a backline showing more flair and skill and more judicious decision-making, they are unlikely to change that trend on Saturday.

Six of the seven Puma backs who started against the Wallabies have been dropped, providing a golden opportunity for the newcomers to show they can do what the others couldn’t. 

South Africa looked set to win against Australia before losing momentum and conceding a match-losing try off the last movement of the game, and then appeared to have New Zealand beaten before allowing them to come from behind to snatch victory. Was it a lack of match fitness, of composure, of experience, or conceding reckless penalties, or a consequence of wrong options or momentary bad defence?

The Boks need a win to restore the players’ confidence in themselves and one another and in their game-plan, and since there is no more demanding, less forgiving rugby public than South Africa’s, they need to win to regain the enthusiastic support of the passionate masses.

Los Pumas have never won a Test against the Springboks, with 18 defeats and a draw, but with the Boks possibly vulnerable after losing their last three Tests in a row – and in their two recent Tests failing to score a single point in the last quarter while conceding 24 – Argentina must feel they have some chance of victory this week and then a bigger chance at home next week of ending the sequence of losses.

Key players:
For South Africa, Jean de Villiers as outside centre and captain, brilliant young two-Test Bok Jesse Kriel, now on the right wing, Schalk Burger, again at 8 with Duane Vermeulen needing a near miraculous recovery to play in the World Cup, and Handré Pollard, awarded yet another chance to “regain form” while Patrick Lambie has been given no opportunity to stake a claim for the 10 jersey. For Los Pumas, El Mago (The Magician) Juan Martin Hernandez is back at 10, replacing Nicolas Sanchez (whose off the ball shenanigans precipitated the Michael Hooper hullabaloo), Tomas Cubelli at 9 (selected, surprisingly, ahead of Martin Landajo), and an all-new loose trio in Pablo Matera, Juan Manuel Leguizamon, and Leonardo Senatore.

The big match-ups:
Hernandez vs Pollard at 10. On the wing, skillful rookie Kriel vs skillful, experienced Juan Imhoff. In the scrums, potent 59-Test loosehead Marcos Ayerza vs potent one-Test Bok tighthead Vincent Koch. And perhaps the two best hookers in world rugby: Bismarck du Plessis vs Agustin Creevy.