The Springboks left it perilously late to nail down a winning start to their 2016 Rugby Championship campaign when they scored two unanswered tries at the death to run out eventual 30-23 winners against a spirited Argentina side at the Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit, on Saturday evening.
At the heart of the Boks match-saving fightback was will-o’-the-wisp scrumhalf Faf de Klerk who prompted the scoring spree with several instances of inspirational play when his side was staring defeat in the face. Deservedly, De Klerk was named ‘man-of-the-match’ afterwards.
The Boks served early warning of their attacking intent when they attempted to run the ball from deep inside their own 22m area in the opening minute after fielding Argentina’s kick-off. It may also have reflected the Boks’ confidence in their ability to strike from deep options when a clearing kick may have been a safer option.
Springbok Elton Jantjies was off target with a goalable seventh-minute penalty but he imposed himself on an attacking sortie moments later when he found a gap. As he was brought down in a tackle, he fed fullback Johan Goosen who laid on a scoring pass to rightwing Ruan Combrinck. Jantjies goaled splendidly from the touchline for a 7-0 lead.
Both sides showed a willingness to run the ball when opportunities presented itself but neither could manage to breach the defence as the match wound towards the 15th-minute mark.
At this stage, the place-kickers Jantjies and Nicolás Sánchez traded penalties to push the scoreline out to 10-3 after 17 minutes.
Argentina suffered a setback in the 22nd minute when their leftwing Manuel Montero was yellow-carded for a dangerous tip tackle on Damian de Allende but they summoned every ounce of courage to bravely deny the Boks any chance of exploiting the one-man advantage.
Instead, against the run of play they produced a six-minute passage of play which produced 10 points to turn the match on its head and take a 13-10 lead. First Sánchez landed a penalty and then outside centre Matias Orlando darted in for a try after the visitors ran the Boks’ defence ragged. Sánchez’s kick from the touchline made for a 13-10 lead.
It took the Boks some to recover after defending this spell of enterprising play by the visitors and when they did their efforts was worth a try next to the posts but midfielder Lionel Mapoe lost the ball in the in-goal area, a fraction ahead of dotting down.
The Boks had been just a fraction more creative going into the halftime break but they were forced to leave the field trailing by three points (13-10).
There was no shortage of attacking enterprise from Argentina when second-half play resumed and the Boks relied on counter-attacking opportunities to keep their fortunes alive.
Bok leftwing Bryan Habana was despatched to the sin bin in the 48th minute after he was deemed guilty of dangerous play but the scoreline remained intact during his absence.
On either side of the hour mark, Jantjies and Sánchez were again on target with penalty attempts after a passage of play in which handling mistakes rather than stout defence denied teams from crossing the whitewash (16-13).
The visitors seemed to draw inspiration from the Sánchez penalty which regained the lead for them and they piled on the misery for the Boks when rightwing Santiago Cordero rounded off a pressure spell with his team’s second try in the 66th minute. Sánchez’ conversion opened up a 23-13 lead.
There was a desperate fightback by the Boks in an effort to save the match and eventually they did more than that to clinch the match, with De Klerk showing the way.
There were tries by Goosen and another at the death by eighthman Warren Whiteley. Jantjies converted both touchdowns and threw in a penalty as well as the Argentinians had no answer the Boks matchwinning 17-point scoring spree in the closing stages.
South Africa 30 (10): Tries: Ruan Combrinck, Johan Goosen, Warren Whiteley. Conversions: Elton Jantjies (3). Penalties: Jantjies (3)
Argentina 23 (13): Tries: Matias Orlando, Santiago Cordero. Conversions: Nicolás Sánchez (2). Penalties: Sánchez (3) – African News Agency (ANA)
