Fly-half Tomas Albornoz converted a penalty 11 minutes from time to give Argentina a 29-28 victory over South Africa and keep alive their Rugby Championship hopes on a sweltering Saturday in Santiago del Estero.
The world champions, the Springboks, had a chance to win when fly-half Manny Reebok missed a penalty late in the game, but they lead the league with 19 points, ahead of second-placed Argentina, 14. The two teams will compete in the final in Nelspruit next Saturday to decide the winner.
Argentina overcame a 17-0 deficit to lead 26-22 with four tries from wing Mateo Carreras, flanker Pablo Matera, prop Joel Sclaví and Albornoz and took advantage of a first-half yellow card for visiting wing Kurt Lee Arendse.
South Africa, who made 10 changes to their line-up after resting several regular players, scored tries from fullback Aphelele Fassi, centre Jesse Kriel and scrumhalf Kobus Reinach but suffered their first defeat of this year's championship.
South Africa must wait another week and pick up a point in Nelspruit to win a fifth Southern Hemisphere title, but Argentina showed that is by no means a given.
“Congratulations to Argentina, they fought hard and didn't lose,” South Africa's stand-in captain Salmaan Moerat said. “They put us under a lot of pressure but we played good rugby for most of the game.”
“We need to keep the pressure on. We let our pressure down at times during the game and that will be a big challenge for us going into next week.”
The Springboks outplayed Argentina in the opening scrum and from the resulting attacking lineout, a simple backline move opened a hole in the Argentine defence, allowing Fassi to comfortably cross the try line.
More superb handling sent Curiel into the gap under the goal for Argentina's second try, and fly-half Handre Pollard added three more points but when Argentina finally got the ball they scored a magnificent try.
After newsletter promotion
Some intricate play from the backline left the defense collapsing, allowing Carreras to cross and score. Then the momentum changed and the Springboks found themselves in a difficult position after receiving a yellow card for a dangerous tackle on Arendse, leaving them down to 14 men.
Argentina scored their second try in almost the same way as the first, with some great handling opening up space on the left wing for Matera to cross.
The home team got their third point while Arendse was still off the field, with a Sclavy charge in on an attacking lineout to put the home team ahead 19-17.
Argentina were on a roll and Albornoz exploited a gap in the Springbok defence to score their fourth try. The visitors finally regained momentum just before half-time, when Reynack quickly tapped in a penalty and smashed it into the corner, but they were still trailing 26-22 at the break.
Penalties from Pollard and substitute Reebok put the Springboks back in the lead 10 minutes into the second period, but Albornoz put Argentina ahead with 11 minutes remaining to give Los Pumas their third victory in the championship.
Eben Etzebeth came off the bench to win his 127th cap for the Springboks, drawing him level with Victor Matfield on the all-time list.
