Rugby: Springboks fire late to down Argentina

  • 19/08/2018

The Springboks have won their opening match of the Rugby Championship, downing Argentina 34-21 in Durban on Sunday morning (NZ time).

It was the perfect start to the Boks' campaign as they scored six tries to three from their visitors to walk away with a winning bonus point.

Argentina led 14-10 at halftime. In the second half  South Africa scored 17 unanswered points to take control of the contest, in front of a big crowd.

Man-of-the-match Aphiwe Dyantyi scored two tries, and gifting another to his wing partner, Makazole Mapimpi, who also finished with two.

Lukhanyo Am and Faf de Klerk scored South Africa's other tries while Nicolas Sanchez, Pablo Matera and Matias Moroni crossed the line for Argentina.

Despite alking away with the win, coach Rassie Erasmus was far from pleased.

"The only positive was the first 30 minutes in the second half; it was the only decent rugby we played," he said.

"I was expecting that we wouldn't produce a completely fluent display, but the first half was worse than I thought. Thankfully Siya [Kolisi] and the boys picked it up after the break.

"We lost a few lineouts that were crucial and there were some technical errors but for all of that it was a dominant performance, but it wasn't the crispest performance. Technically and tactically we weren't on par today."

The two teams meet again next weekend in Mendoza, Argentina.

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