Boks beat Argentina but New Zealand win the Rugby Championship

DURBAN, South Africa: South Africa won the battle but lost the war following their 38-21 victory over ill-disciplined Argentina at a sold out King’s Park in Durban on Saturday (Sep 24), a result that handed the 2022 Rugby Championship title to New Zealand.

The All Blacks top the standings with 19 points from their six games, one more than South Africa, who could not manage the try-scoring bonus point they needed to go with a 39-point winning margin on the scoreboard to claim the trophy.

Instead, Argentina ran them close in Durban but were once again let down by their discipline as they received four yellow cards and conceded two penalty tries. The Boks also scored through number eight Jasper Wiese, loose-forward Siya Kolisi and replacement fullback Kurt-Lee Arendse.

The visitors looked dangerous every time they had ball in hand and scored three tries through scrumhalf Gonzalo Bertranou, back row Juan Martín Gonzalez and centre Matias Moroni, but spent much of the time on defence as they conceded 22 penalties in the game.

"It's tough, but we never take a win for granted and it is an honour to beat a great side like Argentina," South Africa captain Kolisi said at the post-match presentation.

"The way we started, it was slow. But we were abele to score some points. Our discipline also let us down a bit at times.

"When we create opportunities... we were so many times in their half and we did not take the chances. We create so much, our game-plan is working, we just don't convert those opportunities."

New Zealand's 40-14 win over Australia earlier in the day made South Africa's task difficult in Durban, especially as they have only scored more than 40 points in a game once since winning the Rugby World Cup in 2019 – against Georgia