South Africa win first Rugby Championship since 2019

2024 Rugby Championship

South Africa (27) 48

Tries: Fassi 2, Du Toit 2, Kolbe, Marx, Kriel Cons: Hendrikse 2, Pollard 3 Pen: Hendrikse

Argentina (7) 7

Try: Albornoz Con: Albornoz

South Africa hammered Argentina in Nelspruit to win the Rugby Championship for the first time since 2019.

The Springboks scored four first-half tries, with Aphelele Fassi grabbing two before assisting Cheslin Kolbe.

Flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit also scored a couple of tries, while Argentina's only score came through fly-half Tomas Albornoz.

The second-half turning point came when Pumas replacement Pablo Matera saw his yellow card upgraded to a 20-minute red for making head contact when trying to clear out Vincent Koch.

With full-back Santiago Carreras joining Matera in the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on, Malcolm Marx took advantage from the back of a maul.

And centre Jesse Kriel got on the end of Handre Pollard's creative dinked kick to score the final try of the game.

Victory means the Springboks also avenged last weekend's one-point defeat in Argentina, which had denied them clinching the title.

A shortened format in 2019 because of the Rugby World Cup means victory is the Springboks' first in a full tournament since 2009 - prior to Argentina's involvement in the competition.

Despite defeat, it was the Pumas' most successful Rugby Championship after they defeated every team, and headed into the final round still with an outside chance of the title.

It was a historic 128th Springbok game for lock Eben Etzebeth, who surpassed Victor Matfield as his county’s most-capped player.

In a unique pre-game presentation, the 32-year-old’s name and cap number was set on fire, and while it slowly burnt out, Etzebeth was in tears as his team-mates sang the national anthem.

The positive from South Africa's only championship defeat last week was it provided an opportunity to win a first championship in five years in front of home support.

It was a special atmosphere at Mbombela Stadium and the world champions wasted no time in lifting the noise as Fassi crashed over close to the posts for an early try.

A second quickly followed when flanker Du Toit leapt over the ruck to expertly ground the ball after a slight juggle.

There was a sense of inevitability but the Pumas, who successfully came from 17 points down last weekend, sent another reminder to not rule them out because of a slow start when Santiago Grondona broke clear and sent Albornoz in for their opening score.

However, with Mateo Carreras in the sin-bin for taking out Fassi in the air, South Africa exploited the space vacated and Kolbe popped the ball off the deck to Fassi, who grabbed his second try.

The full-back quickly returned the favour, and although Kolbe had plenty of work to do to finish, his dancing feet and power could not be stopped close to the tryline.

The Boks' ruthlessness returned following poor discipline from the Pumas in the final quarter, with the pick of final three tries coming from Kriel, who latched onto Pollard's delightful kick to punish Argentina for going down to 13 men.

South Africa: Fassi, Kolbe, Kriel, De Allende, Arendse; Libbok, Hendrikse; Nche, Mbonambi, Malherbe, Etzebeth, Nortje, Kolisi (capt), Du Toit, Wiese.

Replacements: Marx, Steenekamp, Koch, Louw, Smith, Reinach, Pollard, Am.

Argentina: S Carreras; Isgro, Moroni, Chocobares, M Carreras; Albornoz, Garcia; Gallo, Montoya (capt), Sclavi, Rubiolo, Lavanini, Gonzalez, Grondona, Oviedo.

Replacements: Ruiz, Calles, Delgado, Molina, Matera, Bazan Velez, Cinti, Cruz Mallia.

Referee: Ben O'Keeffe (NZL)

Sin-bin: M Carreras (29), S Carreras (68)

Red card: Matera (55)