South Africa head coach Heyneke Meyer has praised his team for their character after they came from behing to beat Argentina 31-33 in the Rugby Championship on Saturday.
South Africa’s Springboks needed a late Morne Steyn penalty kick to win the match three minutes from time which kept them at the top of the standings in the Rugby Championship.
Steyn’s late penalty was the climax of the Springboks final quarter comeback which included tries from right-wing Cornal Hendricks and flank Marcell Coetzee.
The Springboks were trailing by 12 points with 20 minutes remaning but they stepped up and snatched the victory from the Pumas who dominated all of the statistics with the exception of the scoreboard.
“I do not want to say every weekend that we have shown great character, but we have now won nine of our last 10 away games.
“My guys proved again that they know how to win,” said Meyer after the match.
“We were down and out at one stage and the team came back. There are a lot of areas to work on, but we are still in this competition.”
Springbok captain Jean de Villiers says that the players on the replacements bench and their entry into the game was crucial in them getting out of jail.
“I am not saying those who started did badly, but our bench made a big impact and that is probably where the match was won.
“We see those on the bench as impact players rather than replacements,” said De Villiers.
De Villiers also praised Argentina who had looked like winning their first Rugby Championship match at Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena.
“Once again I am saying that they are a much better team than their world ranking of eighth suggests,” he said.
“We were happy to pull through, but the match could have gone either way.”
Pumas coach Daniel Hourcade and skipper Agustin Creevy said that it was difficult to accept the loss.
“We failed to close the game out after playing at a higher level than the Springboks for much of the game,” admitted Hourcade.
“I do not feel good — there is frustration because we did not handle the closing stages well.”
“We must attack if we are going to beat South Africa, New Zealand and Australia and I believe we are on the right track.
Captain Creevy praised his fowards but admitted that, “There is a lot of disappointment within the team because this is a game we could have won.”
