Argentina edge out South Africa

A 78th minute Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias penalty goal helped Argentina battle past South Africa 26-24 in their Rugby Championship clash in Salta.

This was only Argentina's second victory ever over the Springboks and they deserved it.

This victory was a long time coming.  Argentina were the better team overall and this time the Boks' luck ran out even though they missed quite a few penalties.

The result is a reflection of where South African rugby finds itself at the moment and it doesn't look pretty.  The first half especially was atrocious and one of the worst first 40 minutes in recent memory from the Boks.

Argentina led 23-13 after 55 minutes and it felt like deja vu from last week's Test in Nelspruit, but this time Argentina held their composure in the final minutes to clinch the win.

The first half was terrible, especially from South Africa who just didn't play with any conviction, structure or fluency.  What will be of massive concern for Allister Coetzee is the team's defence which was all over the place.

The Boks gave away too many possession in the first 40, their game plan consisting of box kicks which always went too far.  They didn't have the defensive discipline to cope with the counter attacks los Pumas launched which kept South Africa on the back foot.

Argentina blundered an early opportunity to score when Manuel Montero lost the ball over the line after a desperate tackle from Lionel Mapoe.

Elton Jantjies, who was substituted after 50 minutes, slotted a penalty to get South Africa on the scoreboard after Ramiro Herrera was sent off for a late tackle on Francois Louw.  It was the only points the Boks managed to get while they were playing against 14 men.

A penalty by Nicolas Sanchez was followed by a superb try for Joaquin Tuculet.  Starting in their own 22, Argentina moved up the field and when Vincent Koch shot out of the defensive line it created the space the home side needed to create space on the outside before Tuculet took an inside pass to dive over for a 13-3 lead.

Argentina dominated possession and territory in the first half as the Boks looked clueless.

The second half was slightly better as Coetzee almost emptied his entire bench to try and influence the game.

It worked in patches.  Jantjies slotted a penalty before Bryan Habana scored his 20th Rugby Championship try and 65th of his career for a new Tier-one Test record, surpassing David Campese in the process.

The revival was short lived when Juan Manuel Leguizamon collected a cross kick in the Boks 22 and managed to get the ball down despite colliding with Habana on the way down.  It gave Argentina a 20-13 lead and left the Boks in deep trouble.

Morne Steyn missed a penalty which would have relieved some pressure before Juan Martin Hernandez extended the lead to 23-13 after 55 minutes.

Steyn pulled three points back 10 minutes later and when Pieter-Steph du Toit, who made an excellent impact off the bench, barged his way over the line four minutes later South Africa only trailed by two points.

Steyn gave his team the lead with six minutes to play and the feeling was that the Boks might just pull off another comeback victory, but it wasn't to be.

With two minutes left Argentina won a penalty in the Springbok half which Hernandez converted to give his team their first ever win on home soil over the Springboks.

The scorers:

For Argentina:
Tries:  Tuculet, Leguizamón
Cons:  Sánchez, Hernández
Pens:  Sánchez 2, Hernández, Iglesias

For South Africa:
Tries:  Habana, Du Toit
Cons:  Goosen
Pens:  Jantjies 2, Steyn 2

Argentina:  15 Joaquín Tuculet, 14 Santiago Cordero, 13 Matías Orlando, 12 Juan Martín Hernández, 11 Manuel Montero, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Martín Landajo, 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 4 Matías Alemanno, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Agustín Creevy (c), 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro
Replacements:  16 Julian Montoya, 17 Felipe Arregui, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Javier Ortega Desio, 21 Tomas Cubelli, 22 Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 23 Lucas González Amorosino

South Africa:  15 Johan Goosen, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Teboho Mohoje, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Adriaan Strauss (c), 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements:  16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20 Jaco Kriel, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Morne Steyn, 23 Jesse Kriel

Referee:  Jerome Garces (France)
Assistant Referees:  Glen Jackson (New Zealand), Ben O'Keeffe (New Zealand)
TMO:  George Ayoub (Australia

All Blacks too good again for Wallabies

New Zealand secured a bonus-point win over Australia in the second week of the Rugby Championship, triumphing 29-9 in Wellington.

It was a far closer game than their previous encounter in Sydney last weekend after Australia displayed a much tighter defence compared to their performance last weekend.

However, Israel Dagg scored a brace for his side as New Zealand frequently took advantage of the overlaps they fashioned after some quick recycling.

The win sees the All Blacks consolidate their lead on the overall table after their bonus point last weekend and now sit on top with 10 points.

Unfortunately for Australia, they languish at the bottom of the table after not picking up a single point in either game.

New Zealand inside centre Anton Lienert-Brown vindicated his coach's faith in the player as he provided a fantastic link between the ever imaginative Beauden Barrett and the outside-backs on debut.

The All Blacks led at the break 15-9 after a far more defensively orientated game from the Australians.

But not much changed for the Australians in the second half as it was all New Zealand, when they scored two tries through Sam Cane and Julian Savea.

The statistics are indicative of the scoreline as New Zealand won in almost every facet of the game.  The men in black pipped the Wallabies in defence as they made ten more tackles than their near rivals, while the Wallabies missed a horrendous tally of 30 tackles.  What is even more impressive is that New Zealand made more tackles while actually having 10 percent more possession, with 55 to Australia's 45 percent.

New Zealand started off the try scoring after Aaron Smith made a beautiful break down the midfield.  The scrum-half was tackled and the ball was recycled quickly while the Australian defence was still in disarray.

New recruit Lienert-Brown showed great composure to suck the Australian cover defence in before giving a basketball pass over the last defender for Dagg to gather and cross the line.

After neither side could break the line and both sides' discipline started to slack there was a period of penalty exchanges.  Foley got his side into the game with a shot at goal just outside the All Black 22-metre line, shortly followed by a three-point reply from Barrett.  Foley then took another kick to narrow the points gap.

Dagg grabbed the second try of the game when New Zealand played a well worked set play off the lineout, where Barrett got the ball going at pace and running laterally across the field.  He then gave a perfectly weighted wide pass, which was collected by Ben Smith who gave a short pass to Dagg who cantered over the line for the try.

Australia's luck didn't get any better after they went down to ten men after Scott Fardy hunted down the elusive Ben Smith.  Unfortunately for the Australian blindside, the full-back had already given the pass and the tackle was deemed very late and Fardy was given a yellow card.

Julian Savea was the first scorer of the second half.  Dagg contested for a high ball in the air with Quade Cooper that set up a fantastic field position for New Zealand to attack from.

While the Australian defence was still sucked in, Aaron Smith spread the ball wide with haste for Savea who had inches of space as the cover defence were trying to close him down.  Savea had enough pace to make it past the encroaching Australian wall and dived over.

Sam Cane then bagged a five-pointer of his own after New Zealand surged towards the try line from ten metres out.

Ben Smith darted through the Australian defence before being taken down inches before the white wash.  The ball was then given to Cane who muscled through the defence to put the stamp on another convincing display.

The scorers:

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Dagg 2, Savea, Cane
Cons:  Barrett 3
Pen:  Barrett

For Australia:
Pen:  Foley 2, Hodge
Yellow Card:  Fardy

New Zealand:  15 Ben Smith, 14 Israel Dagg, 13 Malakai Fekitoa, 12 Anton Lienert-Brown, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Kieran Read (c), 7 Sam Cane, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Samuel Whitelock, 4 Brodie Retallick, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Joe Moody
Replacements:  16 James Parsons, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Charlie Faumuina, 19 Liam Squire, 20 Ardie Savea, 21 TJ Perenara, 22 Aaron Cruden, 23 Seta Tamanivalu

Australia:  15 Israel Folau, 14 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13 Samu Kerevi, 12 Bernard Foley, 11 Dane Haylett-Petty, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 David Pocock, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Scott Fardy, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Kane Douglas, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Scott Sio
Replacements:  16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 James Slipper, 18 Allan Ala’alatoa, 19 Dean Mumm, 20 Will Skelton, 21 Tevita Kuridrani, 22 Reece Hodge, 23 Nick Phipps

Referee:  Romain Poite (France)
Assistant Referees:  Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Federico Anselmi (Argentina)
TMO:  Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)

Boks leave it late to edge Argentina

South Africa faught back from 13-23 down to beat Argentina 30-23 in their Rugby Championship opener in Nelspruit on Saturday.

Nerves of steel are becoming a mandatory requirement for players and fans alike in the Allister Coetzee era after Warren Whiteley scored a last minute try to complete a strong comeback by the hosts.

There certainly were moments when South Africa must have feared the worst in losing only a second ever home game against the Pumas.  But like they showed in the series against Ireland, this Bok team can grind out a win even if they looked wholly unconvincing for large parts of this contest.

Argentina gave everything and will be kicking themselves that they allowed the Springboks back into the game after taking an imposing ten-point lead with 12 minutes to play.  The wet conditions definitely played a part in the standard of the game but Argentina will still feel they had a great chance to secure a memorable victory in South Africa.

In the end it wasn't to be thanks to some sublime combination play at the death.  The Boks took the ball through the phases from a line-out inside Argentina's 22.  Jaco Kriel and Juan de Jongh carried the ball well before the ball went out wide.  Eben Etzebeth and Bryan Habana both drew defenders before Habana offloaded to Whiteley, who beat his man to crash over in the left-hand corner.

South Africa started the game strongly and looked up for the game.  Jantjies missed an early penalty but soon made up for it when he exploited a gap in broken play.  The ball was recycled quickly to Johan Goosen who found himself in space before putting Ruan Combrinck away for a try in the corner.

Argetina were reduced to 14 men when Manuel Montero was sent off for a tip tackle on Damian de Allende, but the Boks failed to capatalise on their numerical advantage.  Instead they conceded 10 points during that period through a penalty and a try.

Some thrilling running rugby by los Pumas, which started inside their own 22, resulted in a brilliant try for Matias Orlando which Nicolas Sanchez converted for a 13-10 lead.

South Africa had a great chance to take the lead and ease the pressure when Lionel Mapoe went over after some build-up play following a five-metre line-out.  However, replays confirmed he lost the ball going over and the try was disallowed.

The second half didn't start well for the hosts when Habana received a yellow card after slipping and taking out Cordero in the air.  Still, Jantjies managed to level the score with a penalty despite Argentina enjoying a greater percentage of the possession throughout the game.

The Boks were guilty of too many basic mistakes, especially in the second half and didn't do enough with the ball when they did have it.  Cordero punished some poor tactical kicking by Jantjies to stretch the lead to 23-13 after Argentina launched a counter-attack following a pointless up-and-under by Jantjies.

Etzebeth made a great cover tackle but the visitors recycled quickly before Sanchez chipped the ball over the Bok defence for Cordero to pounce.

South Africa looked down and out at this stage, just like they did in the second Test against Ireland, but they composed themselves and hit back with a try through Goosen to get back into the game.  From a scrum, the excellent Faf de Klerk gathered the ball and ran down the blind side, sucking in three defenders in before giving the inside pass to Goosen who timed his run well to run through unapposed.

A Jantjies penalty levelled things at 23-23 before Whiteley finished off with the match-winning try to spare the home side an embarrassing defeat.

The scorers:

For South Africa:
Tries:  Combrinck, Goosen, Whiteley
Cons:  Jantjies 3
Pens:  Jantjies 3
Yellow Card:  Habana

For Argentina:
Tries:  Orlando, Cordero
Cons:  Sanchez 2
Pens:  Sanchez 3
Yellow Card:  Montero

The teams:

South Africa:  15 Johan Goosen, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Elton Jantjies, Faf de Klerk, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Teboho Mohoje, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Julian Redelinghuys, 2 Adriaan Strauss (c), Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements:  16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20 Jaco Kriel, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Juan de Jongh, 23 Jesse Kriel.

Argentina:  15 Joaquín Tuculet, 14 Santiago Cordero, 13 Matías Orlando, 12 Juan Martín Hernández, 11 Manuel Montero, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Martín Landajo, 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Matías Alemanno, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Agustín Creevy, 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro.
Replacements:  16 Julián Montoya, 17 Felipe Arregui, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Javier Ortega Desio, 21 Tomás Cubelli, 22 Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 23 Ramiro Moyano.

Date:  Saturday, August 20
Venue:  Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit
Kick-off:  17:05 local (15:05 GMT)
Referee:  Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees:  Jérôme Garcès (France), Ben O'Keeffe (New Zealand)
TMO:  George Ayoub (Australia)

Awesome All Blacks embarrass Australia in Sydney

A breathtaking performance by New Zealand saw them demolish Australia 42-8 in a one-sided Rugby Championship opener on Saturday.

While few gave Australia a chance of winning this game, no one expected them to go down at home with the third highest margin ever against their arch rivals.

As scary as the scoreline seems, it's worth remembering that New Zealand left quite a few points on the field considering Beauden Barrett missed three conversions while a try was also disallowed in the first half.

On this evidence it will take something special to prevent the All Blacks from reclaiming the trophy they lost to the Wallabies in 2015.

The build-up to the game was spiced up with the revelation that a listening device was found in a meeting room in New Zealand's Sydney hotel, but on the evidence of the match the question should be asked — who bugged who?

The All Blacks dominated all facets of play.  Their superior handling skills put the Australian defence under immense pressure as they couldn't cope with the line speed and offloading of the men in black.

The Wallabies played into New Zealand's hands by too often kicking possession away aimlessly.  They also lost too many line-outs on their own throw which further underlines their naive tactical approach.

New Zealand were all over the hosts in the first half as they placed an emphasis on keeping the ball, resulting in them enjoying 61 percent possession in the first 40.  Australia couldn't handle the onslaught and slipped 15 tackles during this period, a sure sign that they were in for a very tough night.

Australia's troubles got worse as the game went on.  They lost inside centre Matt Giteau in the 12th minute through an ankle injury.  Matt Toomua replaced him but didn't last the half as he had to go off with concussion.

His replacement Rob Horne was forced off the field shortly before half-time with a wrist injury which forced Nick Phipps onto the field.

New Zealand's rush defence put a lot of pressure on the Australian ball carriers when they did have the ball but the defensive line was caught offside a few times which relieved the pressure on the home side.

Ryan Crotty scored the opening try after some clever play by his captain Kieran Read who pulled a defender and got the ball away quickly to the centre who beat his man on the outside to score.

The second All Black try was a direct result of a second consecutive lineout steal.  After taking play to the opposite side of the field Beauden Barrett took a gap and run over to give his side a commanding 20-3 lead.

The visitors sealed the bonus point before half time through tries by Jerome Kaino, who charged down a Bernard Foley kick, recollected the ball and scored, and Waisake Naholo who ran a clever line to receive an inside pass from Barrett.

Naholo injured himself in the process but it was of little consequence as it gave New Zealand a 32-3 lead going into the break.

The second half was less lively and for a while it looked as if Australia would be able to limit the damage, but another basic error saw Dane Coles reach over for a try after Julian Savea had pounced on a loose ball which Tevita Kuridrani dropped with his team on the attack.

Savea himself celebrated his 40th Test try shortly after before Phipps scored a consolation try for Australia against 14 men after read had been sent off.

The scorers:

For Australia:
Try:  Phipps
Pen:  Foley

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Crotty, Barrett, Kaino, Naholo, Coles, J Savea
Cons:  Barrett 3
Pens:  Barrett 2
Yellow Card:  Read

Australia:  15 Israel Folau, 14 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Matt Giteau, 11 Dane Haylett-Petty, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Will Genia, 8 David Pocock, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Ben McCalman, 5 Rob Simmons, 4 Kane Douglas, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Scott Sio.
Replacements:  16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 James Slipper, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Dean Mumm, 20 Scott Fardy, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Matt Toomua, 23 Rob Horne.

New Zealand:  15 Israel Dagg, 14 Ben Smith, 13 Malakai Fekitoa, 12 Ryan Crotty, 11 Waisake Naholo, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Kieran Read (c), 7 Sam Cane, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Sam Whitelock, 4 Brodie Retallick, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Wyatt Crockett.
Replacements:  16 Dane Coles, 17 Kane Hames, 18 Charlie Faumuina, 19 Liam Squire, 20 Ardie Savea, 21 TJ Perenara, 22 Aaron Cruden, 23 Julian Savea.

Referee:  Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Assistant Referees:  Romain Poite (France), Federico Anselmi (Argentina)
TMO:  Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)