South Africa’s men successfully defended their HSBC SVNS Cape Town title in spectacular fashion, edging Argentina 21-19 in a hard-fought final on Sunday afternoon.
The teams finished on three tries apiece, but it was a moment of defensive brilliance with time up on the clock that had the crowd of 31,941 on their feet as South Africa became the first team to successfully defend the Cape Town title.
They had to dig deep though after Argentina took a 19-7 lead early in the second half, but the home side did what was necessary and finished the weekend as the only unbeaten men’s team at DHL Stadium.
Argentina scored first from a midfield scrum. They sent the ball to the left and Luciano Gonzalez went over, with the conversion giving them a 7-0 lead after two minutes.
The South Africans responded two minutes later when Zain Davids intercepted an Argentinian pass inside the South African 22. They sent the ball wide to Donavan Don who raced away for a try under the sticks, with the score 7-7 after Ricardo Duarttee’s conversion.
A momentary lapse in concentration allowed Argentina their second try, straight from the restart, with Marcos Moneta racing away untouched to put his side 14-7 up.
At this stage, South Africa were guilty of making too many uncharacteristic mistakes which allowed Argentina to keep the pressure up, and from the restart after the break, Moneta scored their third try as he had too much pace for the cover defence to go over in the corner, and give the Pumas a 12-point lead.
But then South African guts came into play with the replacements lifting the tempo. The Blitzboks spread the ball wide and debutant Nabo Sokoyi stepped his way past a would-be defender to race away from 50m out. Duarttee’s conversion made it 19-14 with four minutes to go.
It was a bit of an arm-wrestle at this stage and Argentina managed to keep possession, but again the Blitzboks turned the ball over and sent Christie Grobbelaar away for a try under the uprights, with the conversion pushing them into a winning two-point lead.
Earlier on Sunday, South Africa outscored France by four tries to three for a 22-17 victory in their semi-final that had the crowd on the edge of their seats throughout.
