JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Argentina came within a whisker of another big upset, forcing South Africa to cling on for a 22-21 victory to end the Rugby Championship on Saturday.
Argentina trailed the world champions 15-9 at halftime but controlled the entire second half and threatened to follow up its victory in Australia two weeks ago with a first win on the Highveld in South Africa.
The crucial moment came when South Africa flyhalf Manie Libbok scored a breakaway try in the 69th minute after Argentina threw a loose pass while on the attack deep in Springboks territory.
Scrumhalf Faf de Klerk scooped up the ball and fed Libbok, who motored 80 meters to give South Africa enough of a cushion at 22-9 — but only just.
Argentina still scored the last two tries at Ellis Park, although they only came in the dying minutes despite all the Pumas' dominance in the second 40.
“Against a team like this, if you don’t take opportunities, then they make points,” said Argentina captain Julian Montoya. “Credit to them.”
South Africa went down to 14 men for the last eight minutes of the game at Ellis Park when center Damian de Allende was given a yellow card for intentionally knocking a pass down.
The rest of the game saw Argentina attacking relentlessly and the Springboks relying on last-gasp defense to hold out.
Argentina's first try came in the 75th minute through right wing Mateo Carreras as its pressure finally created gaps out wide. Replacement Matias Moroni nearly made it to the line and popped a pass off the floor for Carreras to go over. That narrowed it to 22-14.
Argentina finally broke through again, but the fulltime hooter had gone by the time replacement scrumhalf Gonzalo Bertranou darted round a ruck to score near the posts. The converted try wasn't quite enough.
South Africa hardly celebrated the tight victory in its last game at home before its Rugby World Cup defense in France starts in September.
“It didn’t really work for us but we walk away with a win and we can just say thank you for that,” said South Africa captain Duane Vermeulen.
The win saw South Africa finish second in the Rugby Championship above Argentina. New Zealand had already clinched its third straight southern hemisphere title by beating Australia 38-7 earlier Saturday.
South Africa and Argentina meet again in a week's time in Argentina in a World Cup warmup game that will start the Springboks' final preparations. They will also face Wales and New Zealand before heading to France.
Saturday's game at Ellis Park was meant to be a jubilant sendoff for the Springboks, with pre-match celebrations that included members of the 1995 and 2007 Rugby World Cup-winning Springboks teams being paraded on the field.
South Africa's performance didn't match the hype, although coach Jacques Nienaber claimed some positives in that the Springboks' defense was severely tested and just about held up.
“We had a proper defense session today,” said Nienaber.
Argentina hassled South Africa from the very start, when fullback Juan Cruz Mallia hurtled downfield from the kickoff and crashed into Springboks scrumhalf Grant Williams after charging down Williams' attempted clearance kick. Williams was knocked out cold 10 seconds into his first test start and left on a stretcher with concussion.
Argentina also had lock Lucas Paulos stretchered off with concussion at the end of the first half.
Argentina led 6-0 through the boot of flyhalf Santiago Carreras but should have had more from its promising start.
South Africa pulled itself together long enough for lock Eben Etzebeth to trample over Santiago Carreras and score the first try of the game in the 19th minute. De Allende added the Boks' second from a lineout maul, where half of the South African backline joined the maul to help propel it toward the Argentina line, and de Allende broke off at the end to dive over.
Santiago Carreras kicked three from three at goal in the first half but missed two penalties in the second half that might have made the difference.
South Africa got the win, but it wasn't nearly the convincing performance it hoped for to start its final run-in to the World Cup.
“There’s still some work to be done,” Vermeulen said.
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