Springboks win the Rugby Championship

South Africa has won the Rugby Championship for the second time in a row after beating Argentina 29–27 in London.

While it was Argentina’s turn to play at home, the country’s rugby union opted to host the fixture at Twickenham rather than on home turf.

The Springboks went into the game needing a win to claim the title after New Zealand beat Australia earlier in the day, taking the All Blacks up to 19 points.

Rassie Erasmus’s team got off to a rough start in the first half, with centre Canan Moodie receiving a yellow card in the first minute for a high tackle on Juan Cruz Mallía, pending a review for a possible red.

Argentina soon capitalised on their one-man advantage, scoring the game’s first try through winger Bautista Delguy. Santiago Carreras then converted to make it 7–0.

South Africa managed to get on the scoreboard through a penalty converted by Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, which was followed by confirmation that Moodie would only receive a yellow card for his earlier offence.

Carreras extended his team’s lead with a penalty ten minutes later, doing so again in the 30th minute to bring the score to 13–3.

However, South Africa were determined to narrow the deficit before half-time and managed to do so through a try by Cobus Reinach just two minutes before the break.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu converted, and the two teams went into the sheds with the score at 13–10.

A knock-on from Argentina after the restart saw the Springboks immediately gain possession in their opponents’ half.

Dangerous play from Mayco Vivas following the scrum saw him sin-binned, pending a review for a possible red.

Just as Argentina had done in the first half, South Africa took advantage of the extra man, with Malcolm Marx scoring from a lineout maul. A missed conversion saw the Springboks take the lead for the first time at 13–15.

Minutes later, Reinach scored his second of the match, increasing his team’s lead to nine after Feinberg-Mngomezulu added the extra two points.

After sustained pressure, Marx grabbed his second try, bringing the score to 13–29 with 17 minutes to play.

Although a Springbok win looked likely at this point, Argentina did not give up and managed to get back into the game after a loose pass allowed Delguy to scoop up the ball and score unchallenged.

The final ten minutes saw momentum shift in Argentina’s favour. South Africa, however, denied the hosts any further scoring opportunities — until the final minute, when a perfectly timed cross-field kick from Carreras found Rodrigo Isgró, who crossed the line to score.

Carreras added the conversion, and with the full-time siren already sounded, the referee blew his whistle to end the match.

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi acknowledged that his team’s performance could have been better but praised their resilience:

“It was not the perfect game of rugby that we played, but the fight that we showed each and every single time.”

“You know it does not always go the way we want it to go, but we are always able to find second gear, and it tells you also with the bench that we have, it has really been special,” he said.

“Since 2018, the mindset that is created amongst the team, you just do not feel in any moment that you are going to lose.”

“It doesn’t matter how it looks, and that is hard to achieve because I know how it feels on the other side when you know how difficult it is to get a win. I am so proud of our country.”