Cape Town – While the Springboks need to beat Argentina by 39 points – and secure a bonus point – to win the Rugby Championship title in Durban on Saturday afternoon, it was a very different situation in 2015 at Kings Park.
Argentina – inspired by Juan Imhoff’s thrilling hat-trick – pulled off one of the biggest shocks in world rugby at the time when they knocked the Boks over 37-25, which left the South Africans without a single victory in the shortened, three-match Rugby Championship that year.
It took Los Pumas just two minutes that August afternoon to unlock the Bok defence, with centre Marcelo Bosch finishing off after a terrific line-break by Imhoff.
Flyhalf Juan Martin Hernandez missed three penalty shots at goal, but that didn’t deter the visitors from turning the knife.
Early in the second quarter, it was that man Imhoff again who sparked a counter-attack and fed Hernandez, who charged all the way to the Bok 10-metre line.
After a few more phases, scrumhalf Tomas Cubelli spun out of Eben Etzebeth’s attempted tackle and then got his pass away on the inside to a flying Imhoff, who registered his first touchdown of the day.
Argentina weren’t done yet, though. Powerful No 8 Leonardo Senatore controlled the ball expertly at the back of a scrum inside the Bok 22, and burst away before offloading to Cubelli, who fed Imhoff with another five-pointer.
At 21-6 after 32 minutes, it was virtually game-over for South Africa.
Lood de Jager pulled one back to reduce the deficit to eight points, but penalties by Hernandez and Bosch stretched the lead to 27-13 at halftime.
Just after the break, disaster struck the Boks when their ‘favourite’ referee, Frenchman Romain Poite, made his usual deplorable impact on proceedings.
Poite allowed play to continue despite Argentina’s medical staff being on the pitch, close to where they had a penalty awarded to them – the Boks also had one of their staffers around them – and the quick-thinking Hernandez took a tap kick and spun the ball wide for Imhoff to complete his hat-trick.
Willie le Roux was the beneficiary of good work by Jean de Villiers and Jesse Kriel to grab the second Bok try, but even at 34-20 behind with 30 minutes left, it was a long road back for the home side.
Hernandez landed the knockout blow with a drop goal to increase their advantage to 37-20, and Argentina closed things out to secure their first ever victory over South Africa.
Can the Boks do the almost impossible and win the title at Kings Park today, or will it be a miracle triumph for Los Pumas again?
Points-Scorers
Springboks 25 – Tries: Lood de Jager, Willie le Roux, Bryan Habana. Conversions: Handre Pollard (2). Penalties: Pollard (2).
Argentina 37 – Tries: Marcelo Bosch, Juan Imhoff (3). Conversions: Juan Martin Hernandez (4). Penalties: Hernandez (1), Marcelo Bosch (1). Drop goal: Hernandez (1).