Ken Borland

Argentina bore the brunt of the Springbok game-plan at close to its clinical best at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday, as South Africa comfortably dispatched them 29-10 in their second Rugby Championship Test.

The Springboks led 15-3 at halftime thanks to flyhalf Handre Pollard’s faultless goalkicking that saw him convert five penalties. With Argentina softened up for the kill in the second half, South Africa duly hammered home their advantage with two tries.

The home side exerted consistent pressure on the Pumas, their maul being particularly effective, and the visitors’ discipline was terrible under the strain as they conceded 13 penalties in the first half alone. Five of those were within the range of Pollard, who made sure Argentina were suitably punished.

The Springboks did some good things on attack, but their efforts were often stymied by the opposition’s negative tactics that killed the momentum. It took until the 32^nd minute for referee Karl Dickson, who was overall accomplished with the whistle, to hand out a yellow card, eighthman Rodrigo Bruni being temporarily sent off after being offsdes and then blatantly slowing down the ball on the ground.

The Springboks opened the scoring in the second half with a superb try. They were fortunate to win the lineout, but wing Cheslin Kolbe had been at the front of the set-piece and it was the wing who took the inside pass and made the initial break. There were also good carries by scrumhalf Cobus Reinach and centre Damian de Allende, before fullback Willie le Roux popped up in the backline to keep the move going and then sprinted around to make the final pass to wing Makazole Mapimpi to score the try.

Six minutes later, Pollard produced an excellent penalty kick into the corner, back ball was won at the lineout, a powerful maul rumbled forward and impressive hooker Malcolm Marx dotted down for the try.

The Springboks were 29-3 up going into the final quarter and they will be disappointed that they did not score again, failing to get the bonus point. They tried their best after the final whistle to get the third try, but instead conceded penalties and it was Argentina who had the final say as flank Pablo Matera bashed and then spun over the line to score, after replacement lock Marco Kremer’s strong carry had been stopped short.

One could pardon the Springboks for some of their scrappiness as numerous changes in personnel were made, outstanding lock Lood de Jager, the man of the match, came off with cramp and Bongi Mbonambi, coming on for Marx, struggled with his lineout throwing. Jaden Hendrikse, replacing Reinach, also had to leave the field after twisting an ankle when he was tackled, forcing Kolbe to play scrumhalf and depriving the home side of attacking fluency.

Scorers

South Africa: Tries – Makazole Mapimpi, Malcolm Marx. Conversions – Handre Pollard (2). Penalties – Pollard (5).

Argentina: Try – Pablo Matera. Conversion – Nicolas Sanchez. Penalty – Domingo Miotti.

The Springboks can be forgiven for thinking that ever since they won the World Cup they have had to play their rugby against the grain, but the adaptability and mental toughness they have shown will once again serve them well amidst the chaos in the Rugby Championship scheduling that threatens to overshadow their second Test against Argentina at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

Following New Zealand’s unilateral withdrawal from their scheduled fixture against Australia in Perth next weekend and their cancellation of South Africa’s matches in Auckland and Dunedin, the whole tournament was thrown into disarray on Friday.

But as Springbok captain Siya Kolisi pointed out, they can only focus on what is in front of them, and that will be a Pumas team out for revenge on Saturday.

“All we can do is concentrate on tomorrow, tomorrow’s match is guaranteed, it will happen and we are really excited for it. We can’t control everything and the rest of the fixtures is something we can’t control. We take it game-by-game and try not to think of the end of the competition and trophies. We put the same effort in whoever we are playing against.

“We go through exactly the same processes and we want to win very game, every competition and every trophy, we don’t want to just compete. The challenges we have faced in these times of a pandemic are never an excuse, when we step on the field we have to be ready and we have to be champions. After missing a whole year of rugby, we just want to play as much as we can,” Kolisi said on Friday.

With quarantine issues meaning New Zealand no longer want to travel to Australia or host games, SA Rugby made sure the opportunity to suggest themselves as hosts of the rest of the Rugby Championship was not passed up on, with the United Kingdom also being mooted as a possible venue.

Springbok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick said South Africa had shown with the successful, albeit troubled, hosting of the British and Irish Lions series that they would be able to safely pull off such a feat.

“If you look at our facilities, we have very good stadiums around Gauteng and we have hosted big events before. You see the success of the Lions tour, they enjoyed our hospitality, staying at a nice golf course. Argentina are down the road from us here in Gqeberha in a very nice hotel on the beachfront. I have no doubt that Australia and New Zealand would enjoy being here as well.

“We have got everything we need to host the rest of the Rugby Championship and it would be great if they decided to come to South Africa, we would welcome them. Our squad will still be staying together until the call is made, but we trust our executive and Director of Rugby to do everything they can to finish the tournament, whether in South Africa or the UK,” Stick said.

The fact that South Africa are currently enjoying a surfeit of top-class depth is a particular boon in these times of Covid restrictions because for a player to join the Springbok squad in Australia at a later stage for the Rugby Championship requires them to jump through a series of almost impenetrable hoops.

Which is why the Springboks will be leaving for Australia on Sunday, the day after their second Test against Argentina at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, with a squad of 42 players and 10 others on standby who are also following strict Covid protocols.

“We are all in a very specific testing regime, so it is tough to get people from outside into the squad. All the players need to pass blood tests, PCRs and antigen tests on specific days, even our standby players, if they are to be allowed to get on the plane to Australia. A player coming in to the squad once we are there has got to follow a well-prescribed testing regime in South Africa and then isolate for 14 days in Australia.

“It’s why the whole squad of 42 will travel on Sunday because it’s almost impossible to add players later on. Argentina and us will be travelling together from Port Elizabeth on Sunday in a plane to Cape Town that will be our own bubble and then we fly together to Australia. If we lose a player to injury in the first Test then his replacement would probably only be available to play on the Tuesday before the last Test against New Zealand on October 2,” Nienaber explained on Tuesday.

The Springbok coach was forced to call into service many of his back-up players in last weekend’s first Test against Argentina and they did a superb job, notching a 32-12 bonus point win. For this Saturday’s repeat fixture, the first-choice, World Cup winning, backline, save for Cobus Reinach coming in for the injured Faf de Klerk at scrumhalf, is back in tow.

The pack is more mix-and-match with regulars Trevor Nyakane, Malcolm Marx, Lood de Jager, Siya Kolisi and Franco Mostert all starting, while tighthead Thomas du Toit will play his first Test since coming on against Namibia in the 2019 World Cup, lock Marvin Orie is in the run-on XV for the first time and fellow second-rower Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg is in line for his debut off the bench.

“It’s a punishing Test schedule we have with the Lions series on three successive weekends and then six matches in eight weeks in the Rugby Championship, so we are forced to make changes to look after the players’ welfare. I said last week how good Argentina are and we are not taking them lightly at all. But our selection speaks volumes for the depth we have,” Nienaber said.

Proteas coach Mark Boucher has acknowledged that the strains of bubble life and the worries of seeing civil unrest back at home have been consumers of energy for his team, but he implored them to make one last push for the final three days of cricket they have in Ireland, starting with the first T20 in Dublin on Monday.

It has generally been a very successful tour of the West Indies and Ireland, with all the series won except for the ODIs against Ireland, which South Africa were forced to share after the first match was rained out and their shock defeat in the second game.

But that historic 43-run loss came at the height of the riots back in South Africa and Boucher said his team had struggled for focus on that day.

“We just weren’t there the other day, the awareness and intensity were way down. But we can’t afford to make excuses, we need to be up for every game. What’s happening back at home is affecting us, and every South African. A lot of adrenaline and energy has gone into chats about it, and that equated to low energy on the field. Plus we’ve been one-and-a-half months on tour.

“We’ve talked a lot to get the emotions out and some of the players have families that have been personally affected, so they feel quite emotionally drained. But we have three days of cricket left and we showed in the last ODI what we can do when we play with good energy. But Ireland will certainly be no walkovers and we found out in the second ODI what happens if we don’t rock up for the T20s,” Boucher said.

With the IPL carnival set to scupper South Africa’s hopes of playing a T20 series against India, the Proteas have these three T20s in the coming week and three more in Sri Lanka to prepare for when the global T20 pageant is held in the United Arab Emirates from October. Assistant coach Enoch Nkwe stressed on Sunday that they now need stable plans.

“We’re not yet where we are supposed to be at, but we will be making sure we give ourselves the best chance of mastering the processes we have in place. We would like to see different personnel in different roles to see how they respond, so those opportunities will be created. We need to look outside the frontline players to see if they can do the job.

“The players need to trust the formula we are working on, no matter the conditions. We only have six games left before the World Cup but we believe we’re on track. We need confidence in our death bowling, where we have clear plans that the bowlers just need to commit to 100%, and we need to get our top-order as stable as possible as soon as possible,” Nkwe said.