Argentina’s Juan Imhoff is tackled by South Africa’s Cobus Reinach during their Championship rugby union test match in Durban, August 8 2015.
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Imhoff crossed the line twice in the opening half to help underdogs Argentina build a 27-13 half-time lead and South Africa never recovered from his third try early in the second half.
Imhoff scored his second off a simple blindside move from a scrum in the 31st to take Argentina out to 21-6.
That night in Cardiff we were supposed to be toasting Wales’s first win over a Sanzar nation in six years, but the conversation invariably turned back to De Villiers and what a South African in our midst termed “De Voodoo”. It’s tough on Jan as he was our best centre last year, but we have to keep the continuity going forward.
“It means we finished the Rugby Championship in the best possible way by achieving an historic result to give us a lot of confidence ahead of the World Cup”.
“I’m very satisfied that he will be able to make his mark as player and captain”, Meyer said in a statement announcing the team for Saturday’s game against Argentina in Durban.
Center Marcelo Bosch scored Argentina’s other try, just two minutes in, and the Springboks struggled from then, trailing the whole game to lose to Argentina for the first time in 20 test matches since 1993. “Today we could not manage that, for a variety of reasons”.
De Villiers said on Friday (Saturday NZT) it was “highly unlikely” he would play worldwide rugby in 2016, meaning next month’s global showpiece could bring to a close a Springbok career he had feared was already over.
Starting XV: Willie le Roux, Jesse Kriel, Jean de Villiers (captain), Damian de Allende, Bryan Habana, Handre Pollard, Ruan Pienaar, Schalk Burger, Marcell Coetzee, Heinrich Brussow, Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth, Vincent Koch, Bismarck du Plessis, Tendai Mtawarira.
Imhoff’s third try, which came three minutes into the second half, was contentious.
“Jesse is a very versatile player, he has played at wing before and spent almost the entire Super Rugby season at fullback”.
“The medics were still on the field, so that was frustrating when they scored that try”.
And when the final whistle blew and the Pumas triumphed for the first time against the Springboks after 19 failed attempts and also won away in the Championship for the first time, they moved toward the “golden oldies” and clapped.
The coach Daniel Hourcade has dropped Santiago Cordero, right wing Gonzalo Camacho, outside centre Matias Moroni and fly-half Nicolas Sanchez.
“We managed to secure quick ball against Australia and New Zealand despite them having two of the best openside flankers in the world”, Meyer said.
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The Boks have to put up a decent score at Kings Park tomorrow against the Pumas, who have yet to beat them.
