Buenos Aires does not hand out easy afternoons, and Rassie Erasmus knew that going in. With 15 players held back in South Africa for the New Zealand series, the coach took a Springboks side to Estadio José Amalfitani built almost entirely around one question: could a group of returning stars, several of them out for months, survive a full 80 minutes against the most dangerous away opponent in world rugby?
The answer arrived narrowly, and painfully, in a 17-10 win.
“Our focus was purely on beating Argentina today, and we had a tough day out there,” Erasmus said afterwards. He had gone into the match expecting exactly the kind of disjointed performance his side produced, given how little rugby a core group of his players had under their belts.
Eben Etzebeth was the clearest pass mark of the night. The lock played every one of the 80 minutes, extended his own record as the most-capped Springbok in history to 142 Tests, and took over the captaincy midway through the first half. Lood de Jager, back from a hip injury, partnered him in the second row and was carefully managed through to the third quarter before making way, a sign of a body still being eased back into Test intensity.
“Buenos Aires chews up depleted teams for breakfast. Sending half-fit stars in there and getting out with a win says everything about this group’s character!” – 🎙️Jay
In the backline, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu played his first match of the season after ankle surgery and went the full 80 minutes himself, 60 at flyhalf before shifting to fullback for the closing stretch. The rust showed at times, including a long-range drop goal attempt that came back off the crossbar during a spell when the Springboks searched hard for fluency they never fully found. Hooker Johan Grobbelaar also completed the full match up front.
That fluency, or lack of it, was the price of the exercise. Former Springboks coach Nick Mallett, speaking on the Talking Boks podcast, called it “an understandably average performance” and pointed to the contestable kicking game, usually a Springbok strength, as the clearest evidence of how much reintegrating so many returning players at once had disrupted the side’s usual rhythm. He felt the kicking from the returning halfback pairing and fullback lacked its normal length and accuracy, either gifting Argentina easy counter-attacking ball or ballooning straight back onto their own forwards, denying South Africa any real platform.
Mallett did credit two things. The Springboks scrum, once the bench front row arrived, dominated for long stretches after an early penalty conceded by Thomas du Toit, and effectively carried an attack he described as blunt and short on offloads. He also picked out one sustained passage in the first half, a string of hard carries that dragged South Africa to within metres of the Argentina line, as the moment the returning group looked closest to firing, before Etzebeth was stripped of the ball by a no-arms tackle just short of the tryline.
If the returning players were being tested, Argentina made sure it was a real exam. Los Pumas arrived off the back of Nations Championship defeats to Scotland and England, yet led 10-3 for most of the first half before Edwill van der Merwe’s length-of-field try levelled it at the break. They came within a dropped final pass of forcing a draw in the last play of the match, sending replacement wing Matías Moroni to his knees after the chance went to ground.
Siya Kolisi, who watched much of the finish from the sideline, put the danger of the fixture plainly afterwards.
“We have a huge amount of respect for them, and we could easily have lost this game. Home or away, they’re one of the toughest teams we play all year.” – Siya Kolisi, Springboks Captain
History backs him up. The Springboks remain unbeaten against Argentina in Buenos Aires since 1993, but their most recent trip to Argentina, in Santiago del Estero in 2024, ended in defeat, and last year’s meeting at Twickenham was decided by just two points. Erasmus said much the same in his own words, crediting Los Pumas’ fighting spirit and pointing out that Argentina carry the same never-say-die attitude the Springboks pride themselves on at home.
Winning the physical battle against a side South Africa have historically struggled to dominate up front, in a stadium he called genuinely intimidating, mattered to him more than the shape of the performance.
South Africa’s defence backed that up in the only stat that mattered: just one try conceded, from an offload Erasmus felt should have been stopped. Discipline held up too. Attack was the one area he flagged as needing work before Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, presented by Castle Double Malt, begins against New Zealand at Ellis Park on 22 August.
The win stretches South Africa’s run to 12 straight Test victories, but it didn’t come free. Kolisi limped off in the first half with a recurrence of a hamstring injury and will undergo scans this week to establish how long he’s out for.
The squad splits into two groups for the flight home on Sunday and Monday, regrouping in Johannesburg with the rest of the touring party already turning their attention to the All Blacks.
📸 Images via SA Rugby / Gallo Images
