Bongi Mbonambi: SA Rugby
The Springboks produced a dominant performance in beating Argentina 29-10 in their Castle Lager Rugby Championship match at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday night.
The score line actually flattered an ill-disciplined Los Pumas outfit whose lone converted try came after the hooter in the 84th minute through flanker Pablo Matera.
South Africa led 15-3 after a stop-start first 40 minutes as flyhalf Handre Pollard kicked five penalty kicks out of five.
Argentina were repeatedly penalised, mostly for off-sides, and one transgression too many led to 8th man Rodrigo Bruini being yellow-carded in the 31st minute.
The Springboks came out firing after the break and Makazole Mapimpi scored a beautiful try in the left hand corner on 47 minutes after the irrepressible Cheslin Kolbe made the initial play with a spectacular burst through the mid-field.
South Africa’s second try came just five minutes later as the forwards set up a lightning rolling maul and Malcolm Marx did the honours by crashing over.
The game was essentially over as a contest at that point as the Boks had stretched the score line out to 29-3 but all credit to Argentina for not throwing in the towel and fighting right to the 84th minute final whistle.
The Boks will be concerned at two nasty leg injuries, the first of which saw Trevor Nyakane hobble off and replaced by Steven Kitshoff after just 13 minutes.
The second injury saw the luckless replacement scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse ‘do’ his ankle as he came down badly in a tackle after a clearance kick in midfield.
His cries of pain could be heard in the empty stadium and resulted in a lengthy stoppage in the 71st minute while he was attended to by the medics before being stretchered off.
When the dust had settled the Springboks had made it two wins out of two over Argentina in the space of 7 days in the Rugby Championship at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Now both teams will have to play a waiting game with the rest of the tournament in question after New Zealand’s refusal to travel to Australia because of Covid-19 concerns.
