Following Argentina’s epic 29-28 win over the Springboks in Santiago, here are our five takeaways from the memorable clash.

An historic win by Los Pumas in Santiago against the world champions sent their fans into raptures as the magnificent new stadium hosted a tense Test.

It was a war of attrition, a day of spiral bombs, scrums and errors as four brilliant tries by Los Pumas from Pablo Matera, Mateo Carreras, Tomas Al𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧oz and Joel Sclavi played three from the Springboks, courtesy of Jesse Kriel, Cobus Reinach and Aphelele Fassi.

The match was played in absolutely insane conditions – starting off over thirty degrees, giving the players a torrid time on the field, resulting in a match of many handling errors and no real shape.

But Los Pumas, under the pump at scrum time, picked apart in the first five minutes and hammered in the aerial contest, held on through desire, superior creativity with ball in hand, and another massive display from the back five in their pack.

Argentina have had some incredible rugby moments in recent times and in this year’s Rugby Championship but being the first to take the crown of South Africa since they became world champions is a crowning glory for a wonderful and committed team.

What could go wrong will go wrong

But it could have been oh so different.

David Campese said in his preview that he wasn’t always sure which version of Argentina would turn up in Tests these days.

Well, judging by the first four minutes of play, you’d be forgiven for wondering if Los Pumas had actually turned up at all.

With South Africa attacking in the 22 from only a second phase, the defence of Argentina simply failed to reload and make any form of line. A hole appeared in midfield the size of the Cape Plains and Fassi needed no second invitation to take advantage of a defensive howler and open the scoring.

Not content with gifting one try, Los Pumas’ focus remained in the dressing room as another complete disaster in defence opened another hole for Jesse Kriel to slice through. Argentina were too busy complaining about Ben-Jason Dixon going miles past a ruck (in fairness, they had a point!) to reload their defence and they paid the price.

It was a horrendous start to a game that unfolded into a scrappy classic- and a remarkable effort from Los Pumas to turn around their awful start.

19-point yellow

When Kurt-Lee Arendse rightly saw a yellow card for a shoulder to the head of Mateo Carreras, nobody could have foreseen what would happen in the next ten minutes. Six points is the average conceded in test rugby for a sin-bin period yet Los Pumas, through the brilliance of Carreras, Tomas Al𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧oz and the superb Santiago Chocobares absolutely made hay in the sun.

With Al𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧oz attacking left, Chocobares cut straight through the Springbok defence with a wonderful line on the wide outside; Carreras looped around and simply gassed the outside defence for a crucial try.

A few moments later it was almost a carbon copy try as the Bok defence failed to drift to their right, Chocobares picked another hole and Carreras offloaded to the galloping Pablo Matera for the second.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, a series of soft penalties saw Argentina with a lineout maul near the Boks line and young number eight Oviedo played Joel Scalvi bang over for a third try in ten minutes.

It was a remarkable sea change, a turning of a tide of green into waves of blue runners and what should have been an eminently manageable yellow card period proved to be a nightmare for South Africa.

Heroes all

For Argentina, heroes abounded from one to fifteen, but for a side that we’re seen used to bashing their way to a win, it was their back division that took the plaudits on Saturday.

In the centre, Chocobares, a player who had a wonderful season in Europe, shone like a beacon. He tore the Bok centre defence apart time and time again, getting outside Lukhanyo Am for the first Los Pumas try and holding the Bok defence and passing around and behind it for the other.

At ten, whilst he had a lot of issues with exit strategy and restarts, Al𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧oz’s ability to break on the outside shoulder or step back against the grain caused South Africa no end of issues and it was fitting that it was another barrelling run from the fly-half that saw Argentina score their fourth try.

It was heroic stuff. Their front row was pulverised at times, but they held on in a number of crucial scrums when it mattered, including a controversial and key free-kick win when the Springboks were ready to launch an offensive just short of the Argentina 22. Their lineout lost a couple, but crucially they pressured the ropey throwing of Malcolm Marx, who once again failed to get any form of consistency with his put-in.

It may have been ugly, it was certainly desperate at times, but the courage of the forwards and the ingenuity of the backs took Argentina home in Santiago for their most memorable of wins.

Bok problems

This is the first time the Springboks have wobbled this campaign and bearing in mind it was largely an experimental side, there’s a benefit of the doubt that must go their way.

However, put bluntly, the midfield defence simply didn’t work. It rushed quickly, sometimes too quickly at times, and when blitzing, it failed to maintain essential alignment. When players rush out at that speed, if the structure is not pinpoint then holes appear and that’s exactly what allowed Chocobares and Al𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧oz to break through and into scramble or offload play on far too many occasions.

In the backrow, there was a lack of intellect and balance, other than an outstanding shift from Marco van Staden over the ball. When faced with players of the size of Matera and Marcos Kremer, route one bosh isn’t the best route to success and time and time again Jasper Wiese and the big Bok carries were smashed as they went into contact.

However, on the plus side, the performance of Ruan Nortje, the one man who played with precision and intellect throughout, proved once again that Rassie Erasmus has discovered an absolute baller of a lock to add depth to his squad, whilst Ox Nche put in an incredible 65 minutes in the suffocating Santiago heat.

It was an evening of could have, should have, might have – and the biggest might of all was the fluffed kick from Manie Libbok in the 77th minute to win the match. It says everything about the Springboks day that a kick he’d nail 99 times out of 100 went wide, and with it, the hope of a nation.