Argentina stun South Africa

However, it took twice former world champions South Africa just six minutes of the second half to notch 10 ponts and draw level.

Sanchez converted to maintain his flawless goal-kicking record and Jantjies missed another penalty, leaving Argentina 13-3 ahead at half-time.

The Pumas led 13-3 at half-time.

South Africa was left to rue goalkicking lapses: Starting flyhalf Elton Jantjies and Steyn jointly missed four kicks at goal while Nicolas Sanchez, Juan Martin Hernandez, and Iglesias maintained ideal records for Argentina, sharing six goals from six attempts.

Both coaches opted to stick nearly man-for-man with the teams they fielded in Nelspruit, South Africa’s Allister Coetzee making one change to the front row due to injury, with Vincent Koch coming in for Julian Redelinghuys.

Until that last scoring act, South Africa lifted its performance, closing to 23-21 with a penalty to Steyn and a try to replacement Pieter-Steph du Toit.

A sweeping attack from inside the Pumas’ 22 with several players involved in a slick passing movement down the left wing ended with fullback Joaquin Tuculet touching down to put the home side 13-3 ahead at the interval.

That goal seemed a crushing blow to Argentina, who had once again let a defensible lead slip away.

“We expected a physical match, we expected a tough game”, Springboks captain Adriaan Strauss said.

The match will be played at the Estadio Padre Martearena in the northwestern Argentine city of Salta (kickoff 1940 GMT).

But Steyn’s miss did eventually prove pivotal, as Gonzalez Iglesias held his nerve and Argentina stood firm in a tense finale, leaving Allister Coetzee’s men with an uphill battle to win the title with New Zealand having claimed two comfortable victories over Australia.

“We will continue to build on our cohesion as a team”.

“We need to go back and have a hard look at ourselves”.

South Africa came out fighting in the second half, levelling courtesy of another Jantjies penalty and a Bryan Habana try, only for Argentina to open up a 10-point lead after Juan Martin Hernandez produced a brilliant cross-field kick for Juan Manuel Leguizamon to score and then booted a conversion and a penalty.