Argentina beat South Africa for the first time in a Test on Saturday, pushing the Springboks’ Rugby World Cup plans toward turmoil, with a 37-25 victory in the final round of the Rugby Championship.
Argentina scored four tries at Kings Park, including three in the first half, and led 34-13 when wing Juan Imhoff completed his hat-trick early in the second half, stunning the crowd, including the reunited 1965 Pumas, the first Argentina team to visit the nation.
The incumbent Pumas celebrated their first win over the Springboks in 20 Tests since 1993.
Photo: EPA
“It is a great victory, maybe the most important one [ever for Argentina],” Argentina coach Daniel Hourcade said.
South Africa, ranked second in the world, dwelt on one of their worst performances in recent memory. They head to rugby’s showpiece have lost four straight Tests for the first time since 2010.
“It is definitely a wake-up call for many of the players,” South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer said. “You need wake-up calls in life, but not at home.”
Center Marcelo Bosch scored Argentina’s other try, the opening score just two minutes in, and the Springboks were second-best throughout.
It left them last in the Rugby Championship — the first time since the introduction of the South American nation in 2012 that the bottom team has not been Argentina.
Argentina were outstanding and carved South Africa open in the second minute when flyhalf Juan Martin Hernandez and Imhoff combined in a set move off a lineout and Imhoff sent center Bosch clear to score. Argentina were bossing South Africa’s scrum, too, winning feeds against the head and penalties as they put the Springboks’ front row — and the whole team — under pressure.
“For us, it is a very important weapon,” Argentina captain and hooker Agustin Creevy said. “We are conscious that we have a very good scrum.”
The Argentina backs were also causing huge problems, with scrumhalf Tomas Cubelli skipping through a couple of missed tackles to set up Imhoff for his first try in the 23rd minute. The Springboks were pulled together for a stern team talk by returning captain Jean de Villiers midway through the half, but it did not work.
Imhoff scored his second off a simple blindside move from a scrum in the 31st minute to take Argentina out to 21-6.
“It certainly is a low point. The fact is that all of us were down and sort of lethargic... We need to find the reason for that and we need to find the reason quickly,” De Villiers said.
Lock Lood de Jager responded briefly for South Africa late in the first half, reaching out to score the Springboks’ first try after being driven to the line by his fellow forwards. That set off fireworks at Kings Park, but Argentina were the team doing all the celebrating.
In a game full of mistakes by South Africa, the home team gave away a penalty straight from the kick-off after that try and Hernandez nailed it for a 27-13 half-time lead.
Imhoff’s hat-trick try three minutes into the second half was contentious. With play stopped for an Argentina penalty, and with medics on the field, Argentina took a quick tap and Imhoff was completely free on the left wing to stretch the lead to 21 points.
Fullback Willie le Roux again suggested a Springboks comeback when he motored down the right touchline for South Africa’s second try in the 49th minute, but Argentina weathered the Springboks’ surge easily, with Bosch capping the Pumas’ historic win with a drop-goal in the 63rd minute.
Even with 17 minutes still to play, South Africa could only come up with a last-minute try from Bryan Habana.
The teams meet again this weekend, in Argentina this time, in a World Cup warm-up game, where Argentina might now start as favorites against the two-time world champions.
“We have learned in every game we played against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa,” Creevy said.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite