World Champions South Africa ran in nine tries to ease past Argentina in a one-off Test in Johannesburg, winning 63-9 on Saturday.
The hosts, who are in the middle of the southern hemisphere Tri-Nations competition, battled somewhat in the first period, scoring just twice to lead 14-9 at the break.
South Africa were never troubled in the game though, except in the opening half hour when they made too many basic errors to be a real threat.
If they weren’t knocking the ball on, they were turning it over at the rucks and there was also some indifferent kicking by the back division.
The home side forced 50/50 passes and gave away a number of penalties on the ground.
That allowed Argentine flyhalf Felipe Contepomi to boot his side into a 9-0 lead inside 25 minutes, but the visitors wouldn’t trouble the scorers again.
Argentina suffered an early setback when their tighthead prop Patricio Ledesma had to leave the field in the 10th minute and from then on the men from South America were on the back foot. The Springboks slowly found their rhythm and structure to annihilate the visitors.
Man of the match center Adrian Jacobs scored the first of his team’s tries in the 33rd minute after a brilliant line break by his midfield partner Jean de Villiers. Two minutes later it was the turn of debutant winger Jongi Nokwe to sprint across the line.
Both tries were converted by Butch James who, by the end of the outing, would have slotted all nine attempts he had at goal.
The Boks kicked off the second 40 minutes in the same fashion as they ended the first half, with a well-taken try by No 8 Pierre Spies.
That was quickly followed by JP Pietersen going over to make it 28-9.
Bok coach Peter de Villiers then made a string of changes, giving a chance to returning World Cup stars Fourie du Preez and Jaque Fourie, who immediately made an impact.
Du Preez had hardly settled into the match before he was able to pick up a loose ball and dash over for the Boks’ fifth try.
Sadly for the Boks, center Fourie was forced to leave the field at the midway point of the second period after sustaining a serious cheekbone injury.
The setback never affected the Boks, who ran in a further four tries, two by eighthman Joe van Niekerk, who celebrated his 50th outing for the Boks, Bismarck du Plessis and a second for Pietersen.
South Africa now turn their attention to the Tri-Nations home matches; New Zealand being first up in Cape Town this weekend.
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