Springboks Vs Pumas: Rugby Championship Match Preview

South Africa will be seeking to avoid any unnecessary scares when they take on underdogs Argentina at the start of their Rugby Championship campaign on Saturday but will be wary about what looks on paper to be a routine assignment.

South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer has spent the week stressing the difficulty of the task at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria (kickoff 1505 GMT) when many of rest of his compatriots are looking further ahead to the meetings with Australia and New Zealand in the annual four-nation competition.

“Argentina have always been difficult to play against so we are going out there to play our best rugby possible,” he told reporters.

A bruising forward challenge is expected as Argentina have shown signs of becoming a scrummaging force again and they will have a polished set of exciting backs to boot.

“In the scrum it’s a huge contest, you have to scrum well to get your ball. They have some of the best guys at the breakdowns,”

Meyer added of an Argentine team who have spent close to a month working on their conditioning at a high performance centre in Pensacola, Florida.

South Africa, who have captain Jean de Villiers back from injury, will be firm favourites to get off to a winning start but the unpredictable nature of the South Americans means the Springboks can never be sure of what they will be up against.

Although they are yet to win a Rugby Championship game, Argentina show continuing sign of improvement but usually offer either stout resistance or implode as they did last year when the Springboks romped home in a nine-try 73-13 rout at Johannesburg’s Soccer City.

 Scramble

A week later, however, albeit on Argentine soil, South Africa had to scramble two late penalties to squeeze home 22-17 in Mendoza.

Argentina have a familiar look about their line-up as well as a promise of freshness with the appointment of Daniel Hourcade as coach and hooker Agustin Creevy as new captain.

“South Africa are a thoroughbred team with strong players and a physical game both in attack and defence,”

Hourcade said on Thursday. He was appointed to a two-year contract after the end of last year’s Rugby Championship.

“Discipline will be crucial and we have talked a lot about this and trained hard for this. Defence is key but we will use our opportunities to attack,” he added.

The two countries meet again on Aug. 23 in Salta.

Prediction

As unpredictable as Argentina can be at times, this is easily the best Springboks side we’ve seen in recent memory. In what’s shaping up as the closest Rugby Championship/Tri Nations series we’ve seen in quite some time, I can’t help but feel for the Puma’s.

They will struggle against all opposition this year, and this game won’t be any different.

No matter which way I try to shed light on the game, it’s difficult to find positives for Argentina, and areas of the game where they may have an advantage.

I’m tipping South Africa to win in a canter – Springboks by 20.

Teams

South Africa: 15-Willie le Roux; 14-Cornal Hendricks, 13-Damian de Allende, 12-Jean de Villiers (captain), 11-Bryan Habana, 10-Handre Pollard, 9-Ruan Pienaar, 8-Duane Vermeulen, 7-Willem Alberts, 6-Francois Louw, 5-Lood de Jager, 4-Bakkies Botha, 3-Jannie du Plessis, 2-Bismarck du Plessis, 1-Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements: 16-Adriaan Strauss, 17-Trevor Nyakane, 18-Frans Malherbe, 19-Eben Etzebeth, 20-Marcell Coetzee, 21-Francois Hougaard, 22-Morne Steyn, 23-Jan Serfontein

Argentina: 15-Joaquin Tuculet, 14-Horacio Agulla, 13-Marcelo Bosch, 12-Juan Martin Hernandez, 11-Manuel Montero, 10-Nicolas Sanchez, 9-Martin Landajo, 8-Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 7-Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, 6-Paul Matera, 5-Thomas Lavanini, 4-Mariano Galarza, 3-Ramiro Herrera 2-Agustin Creevy (captain), 1-Marcos Ayerza
Replacements: 16-Matias Cortese, 17-Paz Lucas Noguera, 18-Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 19-Matias Alemanno, 20-Leonardo Senatore, 21-Thomas Cubelli, 22-Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 23-Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino