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Boks fall short of target but finish with good win

rugby24 September 2022 17:47| © SuperSport
By:Gavin Rich
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The Springboks finished their Castle Lager Rugby Championship season with a deserved 38-21 win over Argentina at Kings Park but were prevented from making a proper challenge for the ultimate prize when they conceded two tries either side of halftime and then lost their discipline.

The Boks looked like they were building for something special in pursuit of the 40-point winning margin required to pip the All Blacks when they led 17-0 following a mammoth Frans Steyn penalty towards the end of the first half. However, an overthrown lineout then led to a Pumas try to scrumhalf Gonzalo Bertranou to change the mood for the Boks at the break.

And then shortly after halftime it became even more difficult to chase down the big win they needed when Pumas flanker Juan Martin Gonzalez blitzed past Bok fullback Willie le Roux as he ran 30 metres for the try that pretty much made it certain that the All Blacks would once again be crowned southern hemisphere champions.

NO LACK OF EFFORT

The New Zealanders had earlier in the day won 40-14 against the Wallabies in Auckland. That set the Boks the task of winning by 40 in addition to picking up the try scoring bonus point.

In the end the Boks failed to do both, but they certainly couldn’t be faulted for effort and passion as they threw everything into their task and were still trying when Kurt-Lee Arendse went in on the hooter.

That was the fifth try and the conversion left the Boks just two points short of what they needed to win by. Unfortunately for them though their defensive lapses allowed the visitors to score three tries and pick up 21 points and that was what left the Boks well short of achieving their target.

The Boks made an inaccurate start early on, with the much-scrutinised Frans Steyn struggling at flyhalf in general and appearing to misread the swirling wind.

But after the initial feeling out period they quickly got into their stride and looked to be finding the momentum wave they needed.

With Frans Malherbe playing his best game in a Bok jersey in the scrums and Jasper Wiese doing similar in general play, an at times quite devastating scrumming performance created the platform for almost complete dominance.

For about half an hour it looked like the Boks were able to walk back the Pumas in both the scrums and the driving mauls almost at will.

That led to two yellow cards, meaning that the Pumas were down to 14 men for half of the first half, and the South Americans also conceded a whopping 14 penalties in the first period.

Five of those were scrum penalties and five of them maul penalties, which was an indication of where the Boks were so dominant.

THAT KIND OF DOMINANCE COULD HAVE LED TO BIG THINGS

Normally when a team is that dominant, you’d expect them to kick on to a big win, perhaps even the 40 points that were needed.

And it started looking very possible once the Boks had recovered from the earlier disappointment of having what initially looked like a good Eben Etzebeth try off a lineout ruled out because he was marginally offside when he got the ball.

The scrumming of the Boks was massive, and the Pumas looked in complete disarray when Wiese dotted down off a pushover effort under the posts in the 20th minute.

Then came more Bok dominance, more strong driving, but also a lot of negativity from Argentina, and it wasn’t surprising when the earlier Tomas Kremer yellow card was added to.

Skipper Siya Kolisi dotted down off a driving maul in the 28th minute to stretch the lead to 14-0 and then came a massive penalty kick from well inside his half to make the lead 17.

The target was just 23 away and more than half the game was left to be played. It was looking good for the South Africans.

However, even when they were riding that wave of momentum that they really needed to ride right through to the finish if they were going to end the game as Championship champions, there were small little inaccuracies that were letting them down and sending out warning signals.

Like a skew lineout, an odd defensive lapse here and there against an Argentina side that at that point was getting so little possession.

FIRST PUMAS TRY CHANGED THE MOOD

And sure enough it was an overthrown lineout that led ultimately to the Gonzalo Bertranou try on the stroke of halftime that changed the whole mood and the momentum of the game.

When the game restarted, it was clear the Argentinians were rejuvenated and re-energised, just as they had been in Buenos Aires at a similar point the previous week.

They came close to scoring early but then got it right with the Gonzalez run down the left flank. Suddenly what had been a 17-point lead was just three, and the required winning margin seemed too far away to be realistic.

Although the Boks did get awarded a penalty try that stretched their advantage back to 10 points, their efforts were starting to be stymied by their indiscipline, with the penalty avalanche that was suffered by the Pumas in the first half reversing itself. Eben Etzebeth was then carded and soon after that so was Faf de Klerk.

The Boks were playing 13 against 15, the task was now beyond possible, and when Matias Moroni ran over untouched out wide on the left as the Boks just ran out of tacklers, the Boks found themselves uncertain whether they were going to win, let alone still concerned about the race for a points differential advantage.

So full marks to them for regrouping, regaining their composure and forcing another penalty try through their forward drive and then sending Arendse in for a spectacular end try.

It at least means that while the Boks finish second to New Zealand, they ended the Championship with the momentum that will make a big difference to their confidence when in a few weeks from now they head off on a very testing end-of- year tour that features matches against world top dogs Ireland and France.

SCORES

South Africa 38 - Tries: Jasper Wiese, Siya Kolisi and Kurt-Lee Arendse; Penalty tries 2; Conversions: Frans Steyn 3; Penalty: Frans Steyn.

Argentina 21 - Tries: Gonzalo Bertranou, Juan Martin Gonzalez and Matias Moroni; Conversions: Emiliano Boffelli 3.

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