Advertisement
South Africa recorded their 34th win over Argentina in Durban last weekend, as we were treated to one of the great flyhalf performances by Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu. This Saturday in the final round of The Rugby Championship, Los Pumas will seek to claim just their 5th win ever over the Springboks at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham, with Argentina considered the home team.
It is unlikely the Boks will come close to scoring as many points again. The win last weekend was the most they have scored against Argentina in 12 years as the Bok fly-half scored a hat-trick of tries, converted eight of South Africa's nine tries and kicked two penalties to beat the previous record of 35 points set by Percy Montgomery against Namibia in 2007.
Argentina are out of title contention in the TRC as they trail South Africa by six points in the Rugby Championship 2025 standings, but a win would boost their standings, World Rugby ranking and provide the team with a massive boat ahead of the end-of-year Tests. Funnily enough, Argentina have alternated between wins and losses in their last seven tests - so anything is possible in London.
Rassie Erasmus has made only change to the starting XV, with Ox Nché starting at loosehead, and Lood de Jager is in the squad replacing Franco Mostert who returned home for family reasons. They will be favourites to make it 11 wins in their last 12 tests against Argentina and scrum dominance is an area they will target.
There are three changes on the bench, with Bongi Mbonambi, Grant Williams and Jesse Kriel included. Both Kriel and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu sit on 95 Test points and could both reach the century mark this weekend.
Erasmus said, “This match is a Final for us, and we know how dangerous Argentina can be, so we selected combinations we feel will be best suited for this game. There are minimal personnel changes, with the bulk of the team having done the job for us last week against the Pumas in Durban and our other Castle Lager Rugby Championship matches.”
Argentina are the most penalised team in the competition (52) and are the only team averaging more than 10 penalties per game (10.4) and with accurate kickers across the Bok team, they could pile up penalty points in addition to tries.
What few penalties the Boks do give away will most likely be slotted by Argentina as Santiago Carreras is the competition’s leading points scorer with 60, and the team has only missed four of their 33 shots at goal (88%). However, Rassie’s men have conceded the fewest penalties in the championship thus far.
A bonus-point win will seal the championship for the defending champions, but even a regular win should be enough. South Africa is on 15 points on the TRC log, one more than New Zealand in second place, but they also have a far superior points difference. In fact, the men in green have the most points (179) most tries (23) and conceded the fewest points (124). A TRC win would be only the second title for South Africa since Argentina joined the competition to form The Rugby Championship in 2012.
It is not that easy to roll over the South Americans, although they have had to deal with a number of enforced changes. If Los Pumas manage to record the win, they will match last year's campaign, which was the first time they defeated New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in the same tournament.
Argentina Head Coach Felipe Contepomi has made seven changes to his starting line-up and two positional switches. Notably, hooker Julián Montoya will become the most-capped captain in Los Pumas history with 52 caps as skipper.
In the pack, Guido Petti, Pedro Rubiolo, and Santiago Grondona start at No.8, and among the backs, Gerónimo Prisciantelli starts at flyhalf, Santiago Carreras moves to fullback, and Juan Cruz Mallía is on wing. The pairing of Simón Benítez Cruz (a first Rugby Championship start at scrum-half) and Geromino Prisciantelli (a first test start at fly-half) have a combined 7 Tests between them.
Beyond defending the TRC title for their first time ever, which seems a ludicrous stat, the Springboks could also be bumped off the top spot in the World Rugby rankings if they lose to Argentina in London this weekend.
For Argentina Head Coach Felipe Contepomi and his team, a win in this home Test in London might not see Argentina rise above England in the rankings to fifth even if they pull off an emphatic victory. A loss could see them swap places with Australia in the rankings if the Wallabies avoid defeat against New Zealand, seeing Australia climb to sixth and what would be a place in Band 1 for the Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 Draw in December.
The South Africans would be bitterly disappointed to lose to Los Pumas after the second-half performance in Durban last week, with Sasha putting out a highlights reel of a show, but none of the four teams have been consistent in The Rugby Championship this year.
If Argentina do beat South Africa, and the Boks have not lost in their last three trips to London, and defeat them by more than 15 points, or if New Zealand beats Australia by that same margin, the Boks will drop below the All Blacks and Ireland into third spot.
On the flip side, if Rassie Erasmus’s men do the job at Twickenham, they could extend their advantage over Ireland at the summit of the ratings log. The Irish could also find themselves bumped into third if both SA and NZ win on the weekend.
With World Rugby having confirmed the pool date and format for Rugby World Cup 2027, there is a cluster of teams that will want to be in the top six by the time of the seedings and draw on 3rd December 2025.
