Argentina hosts their first Rugby Championship match, taking on South Africa in Mendoza. Argentina lost their first match against South Africa and will hope to improve on their showing in Cape Town and be slightly more competitive before taking on the likes of Australia and New Zealand.
The Argentinian team has been forced into a few backline changes, with Martin Rodriquez taking over the fullback jersey from Lucas Amorosino, and Juan Martin Hernandez being ruled out through injury giving way for Nicolas Sanchez at flyhalf.
South Africa were also forced to make a few changes, injury ruling out Bismarck du Plessis, opening the door for Adriaan Strauss to take over at hooker. Keegan Daniel gets dropped to the bench in favour of a bigger and bulkier loose trio, Jacques Potgieter coming into the starting team. The backline is unchanged.
This should be a closer encounter than the opening game in Cape Town, but the South Africans should still be too strong for Argentina, even away from home.
Argentina (revised): 15Martín Rodríguez, 14 Gonzalo Camacho, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Santiago Fernández,11 Horacio Agulla, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Nicolás Vergallo, 8 Juan MartínFernández Lobbe (c), 7 Álvaro Galindo, 6 Julio Farías Cabello, 5 PatricioAlbacete, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Juan Figallo, 2 Eusebio Guiñazú, 1 RodrigoRoncero.
Replacements:16 BrunoPostiglioni, 17 Marcos Ayerza, 18 Leonardo Senatore, 19 Tomás Leonardi, 20Martín Landajo, 21 Lucas González Amorosino, 22 Juan Imhoff.
South Africa: 15 ZaneKirchner, 14 Bryan Habana, 13 Jean de Villiers (c), 12 Frans Steyn, 11 LwaziMvovo, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Willem Alberts, 7 Jacques Potgieter,6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2Adriaan Strauss, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 TiaanLiebenberg, 17 Pat Cilliers, 18 Flip van der Merwe, 19 Keegan Daniel, 20 RuanPienaar, 21 Pat Lambie, 22 JJ Engelbrecht.
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The bateries of the technologies not lasting…..
On my 3rd device now…
Don’t tell the wife, its hers
Hope to see another good game, think both the last 2games was good….
I like this side better than last weeks (obviously Bizzy would be a better choice) but Strauss was great last week…
However would have started with JJ ahead of Mvovo….
…Geez that was close … I though Ras Dumisani was singing our national anthem again
Sound not so lekka
Both sides with missed pk
Eish my electricity just went off….
Arg 3 – 0 SA
12min
Argentina being allowed to fall over the ball
Go Argentina!
Fernández in under the posts, must say bekker is having a shocker so far….
Wow. First bekker then etzebeth. Disgraceful tackling
Arg 10 – 0 SA 18min
If robbie deans is out of his depth, Heyneke is on the wrong planet. Missing divvy
Time to replace bekker
@Franshark (Comment 15) : Wow, he truely has been appalling hasnt he.
Morne fucking steyn kick away one more ball you useless idiot. This monkey meyer is gonna ruin the shark players in that team. Even mvovo goes for the uppie when its not on
@jako (Comment 17) : The problem is we lose the ball almost evertime we go to ground, so they are putting it in the air. Retarded response to poor ball protection
Wow we take up an under penalty’s now……
@Pablo Dinero (Comment 18) : this is hard to watch
Oh Heyneke our savior!
Hahaha!!!!!
Arg 10 – 3 SA 32min
Argentina pre sempre!!!
@jako (Comment 20) : This is fcuking aweful to watch.
Arg 13 – 3 SA 35min
The boks havent even looked like breaking a tackle yet and the forwards are getting bitch-slapped. @Argex (Comment 24) : Para siempre, no sé, pero por ahora… sí.
Arg 13 – 3 SA HT
Well, it looks like Argentina are about to win their 1st 4 nations game. Their first against SA too. So much for SA being the biggest threat to NZ. The boks look like outmuscled high school bullies.
I cannot handle Hougaard as a scrumhalf…..
@jako (Comment 17) :
Between him and Hougaard…I donno who is frustrating me more…
Changes in 2nd hlaf…
Pienaar for Hougaard
JJ for Mvovo
@Hmmm (Comment 32) : seconded
Naas and Mallet opt to say…… Nothing
Pablo Dinero : Yo hablo el espanol rioplatense.
I aqm glad Meyer made a point of bringing on bigger guys…else we would have been bullied even more…
Seems he could foresee a bully battle….
HM is 4 years late. No more victor bakkies and du preez… and outdated game plan. Don’t think he’s a good enough coach to change his ways. Were in for a world of pain with this blou bloed bliksem
HM is 4 years late. No more victor bakkies and du preez… and outdated game plan. Don’t think he’s a good enough coach to change his ways. We’re in for a world of pain with this blou bloed bliksem
Get lambi and pienaar pleaaaaaaase
@Argex (Comment 35) : Vale, entiendo.
Tu equipo está jugando muy bien. Muy fuerte. Buena suerte por la segunda parte.
South Africa are clueless with the ball in hand, but to give credit where its due. Argentina have done their homework. They have the boks figured out.
Arg 13 – 6 SA 49min
Bekker off…..
@Franshark (Comment 42) : The only thing worse than losing will be if we win 15 – 13 with all Morne kicks. Then we will be truely doomed
Flip on, first oppertunity he gives Arg a penalty…..
Flip comes on and picks up right where Bekker left off
Arg 16 – 6 SA 52min
Arg 16 – 9 SA 54min
Was that a line break from JdV?? My goodness first of the game!
Go go potgieter……
All looking good till the ball stolen on the ground 2 m out… Missing Bismark a bit are we?
Pienaar on.. come on bring on lambi
That pass was forward because Morne’s pass was too sloooooow
Morne needs to leave
Thank you F Steyn…..
Arg 16 – 16 SA 66min
So thats the only way we can score tries now. Sad really
Pat on… No not Patrick……
Arg 16 – 16 SA 71min as Morne missis another
Keeeeeegannnnnn
Come on Argies. Heyneke needs to be taught a lesson!
3min to go, we need the ball to score, and Morne keeps on kicking the ball…..
@Franshark (Comment 62) : Hes too scared we will lose it in our own half. Its a cowards approach
Jeaaaaaaaaa!!!!!
How unfortunate. Heyneke stays unbeaten as Bok coach.
Hahahaha
Arg 16 – 16 SA Full Time
Moral victory to the Pumas. Big time. Felicidades Argex.
Pablo Dinero : Don’t know if I should cry or laugh!
at least its a step closer to win!!
What a joke.
Heyneke not nearly as clever as he thinks he is. F’ing doos.
@Argex (Comment 68) : Laugh. Your team was unlucky. They were never behind in the game and only conceded an unlucky try.
@hendrikp (Comment 69) :
His constant yelling into his radio is pathetic as well. Should have done the preparation before the game.
I tried my best to give Heyneke a chance. I predicted this when he got the job, but got told to give him a chance.
He’s had his chance. Now he needs to resign. He’s not building f all. He’s just a bag full of excuses.
Gracias senor!
“Giving everything all the time”
@hendrikp (Comment 71) : I can hear the excuses already. “The team didn’t execute the game plan.”
What a joke!
Pablo Dinero : Your Spanish is exceptionally good. Are you from Spain? Or Spanish heritage?
@Ben (Comment 74) :
That would be true… but it’s difficult executing a game-plan when the players you picked are freaking useless.
Knew this was coming. Didn’t want to believe it.
Jake White took over a complete joke in 2004 and turned them into Tri Nations champions.
Heyneke takes over a pretty damn good side, and can’t even beat Argentina
@hendrikp (Comment 76) : Dude after the last game against England I said NZ will beat us 50 zip in the Rugby Championship. Now let’s wait and see.
And the excuse is:
Lack of experience…
LMAO!!!
Comon HM!!!
@Franshark (Comment 78) :
What a fool.
Will be in for more of the same until this guy finally gets the sack.
hendrik
We’re all upset about tonight’s performance but let’s not resort to name calling.
I’m sure Heyneke will soon realise that his plans are outdated and that he needs to include the likes of Lambie, Kolisi, Daniel, De Jongh, etc.
@wpw (Comment 80) :
Wrong.
He’s going to keep doing as he pleases. The only way things could get worse is by him going with players and a game-plan that he doesn’t believe in or care about.
Just the wrong man for the job.
@hendrikp (Comment 81) : fcuk!! That’s true. He is not talented enough to change.
@wpw (Comment 80) : @hendrikp (Comment 81) : He’ll blame the execution.
Next please!!!! Bring back Mallet
@FireTheLooser (Comment 83) :
Not much of his excuses been heard yet.
At the moment he’s blaming inexperience. Wouldn’t think a starting line-up with 422 test caps was ‘inexperienced’. Extremely frustrating when the guy is on the wrong track but refuses to acknowledge it.
@wpw (Comment 80) :
If he ever starts Lambie at 10, while Steyn or Goosen are both fit, I’ll eat my hat.
Kolisi also isn’t enough of a grinder for what he’s trying to do. Forget about that one.
CJ Stander would’ve been ideal, but he went for the lesser of the two Blue Bulls in Jacques Potgieter
@FireTheLooser (Comment 83) : Indeed, really enjoyed Mallet’s straight talking after the game. The rest of the commentators seemed either too scared or intellectually ill-equipt to express their point of view!
Too put it mildly, disgraceful, but well done to Argentina! Meyer’s comments are also seriously concerning, since they are so naive you almost have to do a double-take.
He said we were poor as we could not get quick ball. When asked why, he said it was because thats how Arg played and hopefully we will get quicker ball against Australia! It was fairly obvious to me that the reason we could not get quick ball is because our game plan is so predictable that Arg knew where the ball of going and simply flooded the breakdown…
You sandwich those statements against the “Whats the point in having a plan B when you can’t execute plan A?” that he offered after drawing with Eng, and you are thinking who this the supposedly gifted coach?? Quite frankly I’ve seen nothing so far.
@neilster (Comment 85) : I wonder how much more of this “execution” talk the players are willing to stomach before they too turn on the coach.
Surely the core of the group also gets frustrated when undeserving players are given opportunity after opportunity when everyone can tell that the ship is going in the wrong direction.
How much more will the guys take before they hijack the game plan and play the game the way it is obviously intended to be played?
I’m hoping for a player revolt sooner rather than later.
One of the worst games I have ever seen the Bokke play….
Terrible
Heyneke Meyer said that this is a rebuilding phase. Fair enough. I can accept that, but if you treat this like a rebuilding phase, just f*king rebuild already!!! Keeping Morne Steyn in the team is not rebuilding. He cost us 2 wins already with his piss poor kicking and his countless up-and-unders going nowhere.
@wpw (Comment 80) :
Lambie yes…not sure about the rest….De Jongh could not even get a hand full of breaks in the S15 behind a great pack….
I would leave Coetzee and Alberts….but bring in Kanko….that will be a great trio….
I will also drop Bekker…he is a show pony…start Juandre…
Morne needs to take a break…and Hougaardt needs to work on his scrumhalf play…
No, Hougaard should play on the wing. He is not Test level material in his current position. Just bring in Pienaar, give Lambie a freaking chance and get rid of the high kicking combo of Hougaard and Steyn. Heyneke Meyer wants to rebuild but he sticks to the part that don’t work.
I remember PDV’s Boks thrashed the Argentinians a year after they finished 3rd at the 2007 RWC – and by a record score I might add.