Argentina’s rugby team, Las Pumas, suffered a 38 to 21 (17-7 divisional) defeat against world champions South Africa this afternoon in the sixth and final match of the Rugby Championship. The match was played at King’s Park in Durban, resulting in New Zealand’s All Blacks becoming champions of the tournament and Los Pumas finishing in last place.
Earlier, New Zealand defeated Australia decisively 40-14 (PT 17-0) to become the Rugby Championship champions for the eighth time.
The match was played at Eden Park in Auckland, leaving the All Blacks with 19 points and a draw of +67, followed by South Africa with +28 with 19, Australia with 10 and Argentina with 9. Argentina’s goals were scored by Gonzalo Bertrano, Juan Martin Gonzalez and Madias Moroni with three tries, while Emiliano Boffelli added three conversions.
South Africa scored five tries from Jasper Wise, captain Shiva Kolisi, two penalty tries and Kurt Lee Aredens, while Franz Steyn contributed with a penalty and three conversions. In the first half, South Africa dominated the action and scored the first try after 18 minutes with Jasper Wise, who stepped up with his forwards to break Argentina’s goal.
South Africa continued to attack with their strikers taking the initiative and Las Pumas could only counter the dominance of the homegrown strikers who gave away penalties in a game with many interceptions. So South Africa went for a second try and their forwards stepped up again to beat skipper Shiva Kolisi to support a 14-0 run with another Stein conversion.
South Africa converted a penalty by Steyn and the first Argentina try came in their only chance at the end of the first half, after a breakthrough from Emiliano Boffelli was won by Gonzalo Bertrano from Mendoza. The conversion for Lee was a 17 to 7 advantage for the South Africans.
At this point, Marcos Kremer and Juan Martin Gonzalez were booked into the Argentina team, for which he played 20 minutes with a reduced player. Additionally, eighth Pablo Matera was injured in the first half and was replaced by Guido Petty. In the penalty area, Las Pumas scored an early effort limited by Juan Martín González from Mendoza, which was converted by Boffelli in the area (14-17).
The Pumas handled the ball well in the rain, but a new Argentina offense was penalized with a penalty try for a new South Africa advantage. The game was dulled by driving errors from both teams, punished by several infringements and Las Pumas, in a new breakthrough with their forwards, opened up the ball down the line and Moroni scored the third.
But again the Springboks took control of the game and with two tries they ran out the final 38-17. Argentina again paid the price for their disorganized play as they were constantly penalized and conceded two penalty attempts. Rounding out the field was South Africa’s Jasper Vaisi at eighth and Argentina’s Marcos Kremer, Tomas Lavani and Juan Martin Gonzalez stood out.
The Pumas, in their best production since the start of the Rugby Championship (2012), defeated Australia (48-17) and New Zealand (25-18), and lost 26-41 to the Wallabies and 3-53 to the All Blacks. And with the Springboks, 20-36 and 21-38.
The Argentina national team will conclude its international season with a tour of the United Kingdom in November: against England at Twickenham in London on the 6th; They face Wales at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on the 12th and Scotland at Murrayfield in Edinburgh on the 19th.
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