Springboks 63 – 09 Argentina

The Boks got off to a slow start but ended up thrashing the touring Pumas in Johannesburg.

The Scorers:

South Africa [63]
Tries: Adrian Jacobs, Jongi Nokwe, Pierre Spies, JP Pietersen (2), Fourie Du Preez, Joe Van Niekerk (2), Bismarck Du Plessis
Conversions: Butch James (9)

Argentina [09]
Penalties: Felipe Contepomi (3)

The Teams:

South Africa: 15 Conrad Jantjes, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Adrian Jacobs, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Jongi Nokwe, 10 Butch James, 9 Enrico Januarie, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Luke Watson, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 CJ van der Linde, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Brian Mujati, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Joe van Niekerk, 20 Fourie du Preez, 21 Jaque Fourie, 22 Percy Montgomery.

Argentina: 15 Bernardo Stortoni, 14 José María Núñez Piossek, 13 Federico Martín Aramburu, 12 Miguel Avramovic, 11 Horacio Agulla, 10 Felipe Contepomi (captain) , 9 Nicolás Vergallo, 8 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 7 Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, 6 Martín Durand, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Rimas Álvarez Kairelis,  3 Pedro Ledesma, 2 Mario Ledesma , 1 Rodrigo Roncero.
Replacements: 16 Alberto Vernet Basualdo, 17 Marcos Ayerza, 18 Esteban Lozada, 19 Álvaro Galindo, 20 Alfredo Lalanne, 21 Benjamín Urdapilleta, 22 Rafael Carballo

The Officials:

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Touch judges: Matt Goddard (Aus), James Leckie (Aus)
TMO: Geoff Warren (England)

The Headlines:

- Poor opening 30 minutes saw the Boks trailing 9-0
- Fourie Du Preez’s return to the team was superb – looked sharp and lifted the play of those around him – especially Butch James
- Bakkies Botha left the field with a knee injury
- JP Pietersen had an excellent, confidence-inspiring game
- Adi Jacobs was the official man of the match
- Jaque Fourie’s return from injury lasted 5 minutes before he was forced off with a cheek injury
- Victor Matfield again had a poor game – dropping the ball at the kick-off and still hanging round in the backline too much
- The Beast scrummed well – containing and even getting the better of the highly-rated Pumas
- Pierre Spies played well, sucking in defenders with strong runs up the middle and popping up in support
- Joe van Niekerk scored 2 tries in his 50th test
- Monty collected his 99th test cap

The Talk:

Peter de Villiers (Springbok Coach):

“They did after all prove that they’re proud of the Springbok jersey and that they wanted to win.

“We now know what we can do. We didn’t go onto the field with the All Blacks in mind, but we know what we’ll have to take up for them.”

Victor Matfield (Springbok Captain):

“We knew it would be tough. They came to tour here between seasons. We gave away far too much possession in that start of the match, and we paid for that.

“There was a point where we said that we must be more conservative in our play, and try to throw less 50-50 passes. We tried to tighten it up and build more patiently.

“We are pretty happy with what happened here today.

“But this is just the start for us again. Of course there are three very tough games coming up, and I can’t wait to get to next week.”

Adi Jacobs (Man of the Match):

“When you play inside guys like Jean de Villiers, it makes it easy. We’re happy with the way things went today.

“It’s a great honour for young Jongi Nokwe, who showed his ability today. Full credit to the backline for scoring so many great tries today.

“Nokwe is one of those guys, that if you put him in space he’ll always be able to break a tackle and score a try.”

Felipe Conteponi (Argentina Captain):

“It’s always difficult to play well in your first game of the season. We knew that we were up against the World Cup winners, and that it would be a tough game.

“We gave our best today, but it wasn’t enough in the second half.

“We’ve been inspired by South African rugby in the past and we’ve always tried to learn from the Springboks. We try to play in a similar style to the Springboks. It’s good for us to copy best team in world.

“Today was an opportunity for us to play the best team in world, and to learn some lessons in how we can improve. Hopefully we’re learning all the time, and we hope that we can continue to go upwards as a team and keep learning lessons.”