The Bok group managed to tug off a 38-21 victory at a packed Kings Park in Durban on Saturday, nevertheless it was finally a bitter-sweet end result because the Springboks nonetheless finally completed second within the Rugby Championship.
It was additionally one other weekend with a spate of controversial selections by World Rugby’s referees and Television Match Officials (TMOs).
In the Springboks v Argentina conflict at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Saturday, Australian referee Damon Murphy handed out 38 penalties in a match that dragged on – and on – for 2 hours and 11 minutes.
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Argentina had been penalised 22 occasions whereas the Springboks had been sanctioned on 16 events in a Test which additionally noticed six yellow cards dished out.
One of the penalties that went towards the Boks got here early on after they had been penalises for obstruction simply because it appeared Eben Etzebeth had efficiently scored what would have been a vital early strive.
Officials felt that Etzebeth had been in entrance of skipper Siya Kolisi, however replays in truth confirmed that Etzebeth by no means let go of the ball, and was subsequently not inflicting any obstruction.
Speaking on SuperSport’s Final Whistle programme, Swys de Bruin insisted {that a} strive ought to have been awarded.
“Eben, not for one second, took his hands off the ball. The TMO said obstruction… it’s a terrible, pathetic call. That is a try,” De Bruin mentioned.
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Meanwhile, doing the double over the Pumas, whereas choosing up wins towards each New Zealand and Australia represented progress in response to coach Jacques Nienaber, though he additionally admitted there have been key enhancements nonetheless required.
“We had a plan to go full on to win the Championship. We had been on process as much as minute 35 after which they acquired a penalty and the rating earlier than half time modified the dynamics.
“I believe we are able to’t fault the trouble from the gamers. We all sat down and acquired into giving it pretty much as good a shot as we may – sadly we got here up brief, however you could by no means take a win within the Bok jersey as a right and we received’t. It’s particular…”
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The Bok aspect are subsequent in motion towards Ireland, the No 1 ranked group on the planet, in Dublin in November when Nienaber mentioned they might have a fair higher concept of the group’s progress.
“We’re not where we want to be yet. We need consistency, and we’ll probably get a pretty good idea on our end-of-year tour. We play No 1 and No 2 [France] teams in the world and we have an SA A side, and it will be a challenging tour. But it will give us nice answers as to where we are.”
Springboks captain Siya Kolisi mentioned “we had some great, great moments in the Rugby Championship, and we also had some weak moments”.
“We know we can win against anyone in the world on our day, but today was a big step forward because it was a third win in a row and we want to take that momentum with us into the end-of-year tour,” added the Bok captain.
The Bok group completed one level behind New Zealand on the ultimate standings
Nienaber famous that he had used 34 gamers within the match and that some questions had been answered over place depth.
“We built some squad depth. Some players got some experience but that wasn’t the main aim – which was to win the Rugby Championship and we fell short on that. But there were some positives to take out of it,” he mentioned.
“We are in a better position now in terms of learning about certain positions than we were when we started. There was always this big issue around flyhalf and whether Damian (Willemse) could play there and hats off to Frans (Steyn) today, in a very short space of time he had to slot in and he will just get better in terms of that.
“We’ve also had Kurt-Lee (Arendse) and Canan (Moodie) come through and now Cheslin (Kolbe) has to perform if he wants to get back in – but we know he is quality, and we look forward to welcoming him back.”
WATCH | HIGHLIGHTS: SPRINGBOKS V ARGENTINA
Springbok group: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Canan Moodie, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Frans Steyn, 9 Jaden Hendrikse, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Subs: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Duane Vermeulen, 21 Kwagga Smith, 22 Faf de Klerk, 23 Kurt-Lee Arendse.
Argentina group: 15 Juan Cruz Mallia, 14 Emiliano Boffelli, 13 Matias Moroni , 12 Jeronimo De La Fuente, 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Pablo Matera, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Matias Alemanno, 3 Eduardo Bello, 2 Julian Montoya (c), 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro.
Subs: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Joel Sclavi, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Pedro Rubiolo, 21 Tomas Cubelli, 22 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 23 Bautista Delguy.
