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The Rugby Championship
2025
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RSA vs ARG
The Rugby Championship
Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit
South Africa
vs
Argentina
48
FT
7
Action
Lineups
All
Facts Only
All
Full-Time: 48 - 7
There's a bit of a break in the international season now before the Autumn Internationals up north, where the Springboks will be looking to reclaim their World #1 ranking as they take on Scotland, England, and Wales. Argentina will be in action against Italy, Ireland, and France.
And that's the title for South Africa! Argentina's very slim chances faded very quickly today, but to be fair it was mostly just a mathematical chance to secure their first ever Rugby Championship title anyway. Despite the disappointment, Los Pumas can be proud of the season they have had. For the first time ever they have beaten every other team in the competition in a single season, with an excellent win over the All Blacks in New Zealand, a record win over the Wallabies, and the only win over the Springboks in the 2024 Rugby Championship.
It's a disappointing day at the office for Los Pumas. At no point did they look even vaguely threatening in this clash, with just the briefest flicker of hope when Albornoz ran in their sole try. But it was shortlived, and came completely against the run of play, and South Africa were straight back on the offensive right after that to further extend their lead. Argentina couldn't hold up in the scrums, couldn't get onto the front foot through phase play against a brutal Springbok defence, and couldn't protect the ball at their breakdowns.
The Boks held two thirds of possession and territory in the first half, and while Argentina did manage to claw a little of that back in the second half they still weren't able to get themselves down into the red zone and onto the board. The couple of phases they were able to string together were either within their own half or just inside Bok territory, with the home side proving dangerous in the contact zone and at the breakdowns to force turnovers before Argentina could build up too much momentum and pressure.
It was a bit static after the break, with no points scored until almost the last 10 minutes of the match as Argentina managed to hold the Boks off for a good period there. But the visitors ran out of legs in the final minutes. They were shown a red and a yellow card in the second half -- after already being reduced to 14 for 10 minutes in the first half -- and they just couldn't keep up with the Boks as they were stretched thin on defence. The result was three quick tries from South Africa in the final 10 minutes as they started to really have fun with it.
It was a much more expansive game from the Boks this week. They used their set pieces to get the backline onto the front foot, spreading the ball wide with some excellent quick passing and offloading. The likes of Arendse and Kolbe were in fine form, making great metres up their respective touchlines as they cut a brutal line against a scrambling Los Pumas defence, getting the Boks down into the red zone over and over again.
Argentina weren't helped any by their lineout form either. They used their penalties to get down into the right areas of the pitch, but couldn't secure their own lineout ball half the time. Two went straight over the top and were swiftly scooped up by the Boks, while another one knocked on at the tail gave the ball straight back to the home side as well, scuppering any real chance they had to put the Boks under pressure down in their own half of the pitch.
South Africa were massive at scrum time, winning penalty after penalty in the first half as they put huge pressure on the Argentine pack. They had the shove on throughout the game, but weren't rewarded with the scrum penalties in the second half. They may not have been getting the ball directly back, but they forced Garcia and Velez to dig the ball out while scrambling backwards, and it often ended up resulting in turnover ball anyway as the backline had to try and play it from way behind the gainline.
It's a stunner from the Boks as they secure the Rugby Championship title! It was a long shot for Argentina to cause the upset they needed today to win their maiden Championship, but South Africa were never going to be content to win the title with a losing bonus point. The home side came out of the gate absolutely firing, scoring four tries in the first half as they absolutely stifled Los Pumas at every attacking opportunity. The visitors were able to get just a single try on the board throughout the match, and it came halfway through the first half through a sudden break up the middle of the park.