RWC Farewell Test: Springboks defeat Los Pumas

Rugby World Cup Farewell Test

The Rugby World Cup Farewell Test saw a weakened Springboks defeat Los Pumas at Loftus Versveld in Pretoria by 24 points to 18.

South Africa 24 Argentina 18

Scorers

South Africa: Tries: Nkosi (2) Conversions: Jantjies (2) Penalties: Jantjies (4)

Argentina: Tries: Petti, Matera Conversions: Bonilla Penalties: Bonilla (2)

The Springboks fielded mostly a sub-strength outfit, resting most of what can be considered their first choice players. 38 year old Schalk Brits was given the captaincy for this game. This allowed Siya Kolisi to continue his return to action without the additional pressures of captaincy. He put in a solid 50 minutes before being substituted by Marco van Staden.

Los Pumas made five changes to their run-on team after their lost to the Springboks in Salta last weekend.

Both teams struggled to settle down for most of the first half. The Springboks especially couldn’t seem to gel and it took half an hour before S’bu Nkosi scored the first try of the game. To be honest though, both teams were sloppy throughout the first half, no more so the ill-judged pass from Reinach that led directly to Petti’s intercept try.

The Springboks missed the longer kicking game of Handre Pollard and Willie le Roux. For their part, the Pumas continually harassed and pressured the Springboks into mistakes and slowed their phase play ball down.

Look forward to our wrap of the Rugby Championship and the Argentine warm up game.

Teams:

South Africa:

15 Warrick Gelant, 14 S’bu Nkosi, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Dillyn Leyds, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Marcell Coetzee, 7 Rynhardt Elstadt, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 RG Snyman, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Schalk Brits (captain), 1 Thomas du Toit

Substitutes: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Marvin Orie, 20 Marco van Staden, 21 Kwagga Smith, 22 Faf de Klerk, 23 Frans Steyn

Argentina:

15 Joaquin Tuculet, 14 Sebastian Cancelliere, 13 Jeronimo de la Fuente, 12 Lucas Mensa, 11 Ramiro Moyano, 10 Joaquin Diaz Bonilla, 9 Felipe Ezcurra, 8 Javier Ortega Desio, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera (captain), 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Santiago Medrano, 2 Julian Montoya, 1 Mayco Vivas

Substitutes: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 18 Juan Figallo, 19 Matias Alemanno, 20 Tomas Lezana, 21 Gonzalo Bertanou, 22 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 23 Santiago Carreras

“Main Photo:”

Embed from Getty Images