Comment: All Blacks need not ‘worry’ after Springboks ‘escaped to victory’ against Argentina
All Blacks need not 'worry' after Springboks 'escaped to victory' against Argentina
This was no masterpiece. If it were a painting, no one would want it framed and hung in the Louvre. On a cold day, miles from home, South Africa escaped to victory. Imperious they were not.
They lost captain Siya Kolisi to injury and might well have coughed up the win had Matias Moroni not dropped the ball on the final play with the try-line at his mercy before bursting into tears.
On the face of it, there was nothing in the Springboks’ 17-10 defeat of Argentina to worry New Zealand ahead of the fast-approaching Greatest Rivalry series.
A Pumas side far weaker than that beaten by Scotland and England in two of its previous three outings slowed then suffocated the world champions’ attack with its fast and furious defence.
Santi Carreras clearly won the battle of the playmakers against Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, two inexperienced props gave the Springboks problems and 33-year-old stand-in skipper Pablo Matera eclipsed even Cameron Hanekom, excellent on his first start at number eight.
Yet in the results business it’s about getting the job done. Sometimes you just need to find a way.
“We’re happy with the character the players showed”
This was a fixture fraught with danger given five of the Boks’ starting XV were playing their first game in eight months, 15 front-liners were missing, and the only opponent on the lips of South Africans back home is the All Blacks.
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Perhaps Rassie Erasmus was being wildly optimistic when playing down fears for Kolisi. “He had a hamstring injury which kept him out (of the Nations Championship games), this time he pulled the other one. It doesn’t look too bad.”
But he is right not to get overly stressed by the unconvincing nature of this win; to point to the pluses of getting precious minutes into the legs of Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Eben Etzebeth and Lood de Jager.
And also further expose fringe players sure to be required against New Zealand given the brutal requirement of four Tests on as many weekends, switching from altitude to sea level and back again – and then on to a different continent.
“We’re not happy with the performance itself, but we’re happy with the character the players showed,” Erasmus said. “A lot of the group haven’t played in a while, and we had a few younger players in this squad who brought real energy.
“So, we’re not saying we played well, obviously it wasn’t pretty, obviously it wasn’t perfect. But we’re very happy with how hard we ground this one out.
“The lesson is that knockout-level rugby is always close. Rugby World Cup pool games can sometimes be a bit more comfortable, but this is exactly the kind of match you learn from.”
Lessons learned as emotions kept in check
Argentina were a different team from that which also lost its previous game (against England) on the final play. Different in personnel but, most notably, in attitude.
Gone were the histrionics and reckless emotion they appeared to draw from their World Cup footballers. This time the fans did not boo the opposition anthem, the team did not wear a kit paying homage to Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal against the nation they were playing.
In Carreras, they had a fly-half in full control of himself and the game he wanted played around him, rather than Tomas Albornoz losing his head during and after the game against England.
It needed a rare moment of perfect execution by the Boks on the stroke of half-time to claw back a 10-3 deficit gained through Benjamin Grondona’s smart early try.
Andre Esterhuizen did wonders to take a pass and give one off balance to Canan Moodie, whose hands were no less impressive in working the ball to Aphelele Fassi, who sent in Edwill van der Merwe.
Still, it needed the Bomb Squad to put the Boks in position to get ahead for the first time 17 minutes from time, Hanekom dabbing down from a five-metre scrum pushover.
A narrow, clunky win is hardly likely to keep New Zealand awake at night, particularly as Argentina blew their chance of a draw when Moroni fumbled a high pass on the 15th phase of the final play after Matera’s outrageous 50-22 gave them one last shot.
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Springbok and All Blacks give little away
Equally, the Boks will have read little into the All Blacks taking an hour to get the measure of the Stormers in their tour opener.
Where the tourists do hold an advantage is in having two warm-up games still to play before the year’s most eagerly-awaited series kicks off at Ellis Park. The Boks have only the training field.
Time will tell whether 80 minutes at Vélez, in a game which left Erasmus admitting “we need to sort out our attack”, is sufficient to get the rust off the likes of Etzebeth, Feinberg-Mngomezulu and De Jager.
Whether a fortnight is long enough to get Kolisi even close to fitness or whether Paul de Villiers gets to continue his impressive breakout year.
“Even if we had drawn we would have still learned a lot about grinding out a result with a crowd going wild,” the coach assured his countrymen and women back home.
“For us to stay calm through that, even without playing our best rugby, tells me we’re handling pressure a little better than before.”
In Erasmus they trust. It has worked for them so far.
