Expectations were certainly high prior to the Rugby Championship Test between the Argentinian Pumas and South Africa’s Springboks on Saturday evening, specially in light of the fact that the Springboks demolished the Pumas the week before, by beating them 73 / 13 at Soccer City. However, the cautious amongst us warned that it would not be that easy this past weekend at Estadio Malvinas Argentinas in Mendoza, Argentina.

We still expected a comfortable win by the Springboks and demanded that the Springboks also score 4 tries in the process.

Well, neither was the win comfortable nor did the Springboks score 4 tries, in fact they were outscored by 2 tries to 1 by a very brutal and difficult Pumas side, yet the Springboks still showed composure to go on and win the encounter by 22 / 17.

As a result the South African Springboks still top the Log in The Rugby Championship, with 9 out of a possible 10 Log points and a larger points difference than the New Zealand All Blacks who also stand on 9 Log points. Argentina has 1 Log point and Australia’s Wallabies have none after 2 games.

Looking at media reports and write-up’s after this weekend, the message coming from the Springbok camp is that they were not complacent and are definately not happy or satisfied with their sqeeky win on the weekend, yet they describe the narrow win as an early wake-up call prior to the next Test, an encounter in Australia against the Wallabies.

The Wallabies, whilst fuming over referee interpretations on the weekend, will be hurting with 2 losses in a row against the All Blacks and will do everything in their power to claw their way back in The Rugby Championship. The next 2 encounters in The Rugby Championship both take place in 2 weeks time, on 7 September 2013, the 1st of the 2 between the All Blacks vs Pumas and the 2nd between the Wallabies vs Springboks.

Although I agree that it is not the end of the world, and a meagre win was still achieved in Mendoza, one has to be honest and critical enough to realise that some introspection is required by the Springboks, just more than 2 weeks into The Rugby Championship and with 2 massive games coming up against the world’s top sides, the Wallabies (7 September) and the All Blacks (14 September).

The Springbok forward pack MUST take a lot of the blame for the meagre win, not having provided front foot ball for the scrumhalf and Springbok backline to flourish and at the same time falling hook, line and sinker for the niggling ploys set by the Pumas forwards in disrupting the Springboks.

At the same time it does not end there, with Ruan Pienaar’s play probably the worst of the whole Springbok 23, followed closely by that of JJ Engelbrecht and to a lessor but still vital extent by the play of the Springbok back 3 (Bjorn Basson, Bryan Habana and Willie le Roux).

Ruan Pienaar’s lingering, slow, cumbersome service from the base of the scrums, rucks and mauls was appalling and the Pumas 1st try was a directly resultant outcome from a lumbersome fumble by Ruan Pienaar, failing to secure fast and accurate ball with the Springboks hot on attack in the 1st minute or so… the result a Pumas try 60m up field and an early Pumas lead of 7 / 0.

The 2nd Pumas try was a combined defensive lapse between JJ Engelbrecht and Jannie du Plessis, but my opinion is that JJ Engelbrecht’s slightly early shoot up in defence close to the Springbok line, was the primary cause of the gap opening up for Marcelo Bosch to score.

There was no magic from Willie le Roux this past weekend, with a number of dropped balls from up-and-under receipts and a sudden and difficult to explain lack of penetrating ability, being a mere link in the chain rather than that X-factor player we know he naturally is and can be.

Apart from the only Springbok try, Bjorn Basson was ordinary and the same can be said of Bryan Habana who produced very little during the game.

Amongst the forwards, Juandré Kruger was abysmal, contrary to his stellar Test the week before… he was a mere shadow of a Test lock.

The questions therefore, which need answering, is whether Heyneke Meyer should substitute a few players? Yes we know he just loves continuity in selection and yes we should not expect too many changes, but I implore him to drop Ruan Pienaar right out of the match day 23 and to rather start with Jano Vermaak, with Piet van Zyl on the bench. I also implore Heyneke Meyer to start with Eben Etzebeth and Flip van der Merwe as his locks, with Juandré Kruger relegated to the bench.

The likelyhood is that Ewen McKenzie will continue with Adam Ashley-Cooper at No 13, Ashley-Cooper being one of only a select few Wallabies who showed any penetrating prowess against the All Blacks. This leads me to JJ Engelbrecght’s defensive lapses and I simply have to ask the question whether it would not be wise to move Jean de Villiers out to No 13 and to start with Jan Serfontein at No 12, with JJ Engelbrecht also reverting to the bench?

The changes I suggest, would mean a change of only 3 out of the match day 23, surely that is not straying too far from consistency in selection!

Here’s a look at reports and media write-up’s on the Springbok performance this past Saturday:

Sport24 – Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer says his side by no means underestimated Argentina in their Rugby Championship Test in Mendoza on Saturday.

The Boks were somewhat lucky to escape with a 22-17 win after trailing for most of the match. This performance was a far cry from their 73-13 demolition of the Pumas the previous week in Soweto.

But Meyer insists they did not take their opponents lightly, and believes had they done so they would have lost the match.

“We knew they were going to come hard at us. And then when they scored that first try (in the second minute), we were immediately under pressure. If we underestimated this team, then we wouldn’t have won,” Meyer said.

“But we were by no means lucky with this game. It wasn’t good enough, and if you were in the change room afterwards you would have seen that the guys aren’t happy. And if you win by five points and you’re not happy, then it’s a sign of a team on the up.”

Bok skipper Jean de Villiers said the positive out of the game was that they improved from last year – when a similar performance saw the Boks draw 16-all in Mendoza.

“Everything we wanted to do – the things we paid attention to during the week – we didn’t do well at all. It was very much the same as last year, but on a positive note we’ve come really far since last year to now win this match.”

Sport24 (Rob Howing) – Such was the Sunday climate of despondency among many Springbok rugby fans that you’d think the national team had actually lost their Castle Rugby Championship match against Argentina in Mendoza.

Quick reality check: despite the near-maniacal zeal of the rejuvenated Pumas, South Africa did get past the post, and narrowly lead the standings from New Zealand after the second round of matches.

They have nine points each, but the Boks are currently superior in for-and-against terms, primarily because of the avalanche home win over the Argentineans a week earlier.

Of course the majority of South Africans, and doubtless the Boks themselves, will be only too aware that the situation is notably skewed by Jean de Villiers’s team having quickly played both fixtures against probably the weakest of the quartet in the competition, whilst the All Blacks will be well chuffed with disposal of Australia twice and clinical retention of the parallel Bledisloe Cup.

Frankly, Richie McCaw’s side are already sitting prettiest and have sent out strong signals that they will not easily be knocked off their lofty perch, either in this event or on the IRB rankings.

Nevertheless, it is also an indisputable fact that – in a 2013 Championship showing exactly the same sequence of matches as last year – the Boks have bagged three more points against Argentina than they did in the maiden season of the four-nation competition.

It must be remembered that at Newlands last year the fourth try proved just too elusive, whilst the Mendoza date ended in a 16-16 stalemate, thus curtailing South Africa to six points out of a possible 10 against the Pumas: this time they came up just one short of a full house.

That amounts to a significantly healthier situation for them, one third of the way through an event featuring only six matches per team.

There is also now the tantalising incentive for the Boks to go all out to beat the iffy, transitional Wallabies in Brisbane in a fortnight – for if they do achieve that, it would just about certainly make the Championship a two-horse race between the World Cup champions and South Africa.

At present, Australia are bottom of the pile without a point to show; the Pumas so deservedly got the consolation of a losing bonus point against the Boks on Saturday.

A third loss on the trot for the Wallabies in a fortnight’s time and there would be no coming back for them … even for the runners-up slot, you would think.

There is also a good case for saying – and words to this effect have already been expressed by coach Heyneke Meyer and others in the camp – that the closeness of the contest in Mendoza will have popped any bubbles of mental complacency that may have existed in some team personnel going into the return clash between the two teams after pathetically one-sided events at FNB Stadium.

It is not Meyer’s way, particularly this season, to shake bags too vigorously just because a victory has been ground out in ugly fashion rather than with liberal doses of flair.

So those with a knee-jerk demand for wholesale alterations to the starting XV against the Wallabies in Brisbane could well be disappointed.

But that also doesn’t mean Meyer and his lieutenants won’t put a great deal of thought for the next week and a bit into whether, in fact, they have the correct incumbents in certain positions.

I would argue that the pack, although outplayed for sheer urgency and collective gusto by the desperate Pumas on Saturday, remains a pretty settled combination and overwhelmingly deserving of a vote of confidence in Australia.

The one key issue in the boiler room might be whether mobile lock Juandré Kruger, who fell a long way short of his effort in Soweto in the follow-up clash, merits another crack: he simply did not pitch up enough for physical commitment in Mendoza.

Remember that Flip van der Merwe dovetailed surprisingly well with Eben Etzebeth when they teamed up recently enough against Samoa – an outfit not unlike the Pumas at times for roughhouse qualities where the proverbial sun don’t shine – and the possibility of putting out two “bruisers” in the second row cannot be ruled out.

That said, the Wallabies present different challenges, style-wise, to Argentina.

Bismarck du Plessis? He is clearly fast regaining his premier form after all those months of inactivity, and Adriaan Strauss was a fraction short of his own admirable best as starting hooker on Saturday.

But a guess at this stage is that the latter will hang onto his berth, given his consistent excellence in the green and gold for around a year, yet all the while knowing that the heavyweight presence of Du Plessis lurks on the bench: perhaps the world-class Sharks combatant will earn nearer to 40 minutes of game-time after the break in Brisbane if his brute strength and lustre is clearly required.

It is behind the scrum that the picture looks a little more volatile: none of the back three (Willie le Roux, Bryan Habana and Bjorn Basson) had a compelling game in Argentina, though in Habana’s case his position is very secure, JJ Engelbrecht still leaves some room for concern defensively at outside centre, and Ruan Pienaar is particularly in peril at scrumhalf.

No 9 is the likeliest area for a change against the Wallabies: Pienaar just looked too languid in Mendoza, clearing the ball unacceptably slowly much of the time and generally failing to put a stamp on proceedings.

Logically that should bring Jano Vermaak back into the spotlight for a second Bok start, after his debut in that regard was cruelly cut short by a 59th-minute torn hamstring against Italy back in early June.

Mind you, the more hopeful among Bok supporters may not want to completely preclude the possibility of some fresh “diplomatic engagement” between SARU and Fourie du Preez’s Japanese bosses for the veteran maestro’s cheeky release for the Antipodean leg of the Championship.

Rugby365 – Although not happy with his team’s performance, Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer insists they will be better off for their experience in Mendoza.

The Boks battled to a 22-17 victory over a fired-up Pumas side that put up far more of a fight than they had in Soweto the week before.

However, Meyer was adamant that despite their lacklustre display away from home the Boks learned some valuable lessons that will stand them in good stead on their upcoming trip to Australasia.

“I am obviously not happy, it was not good enough. If you look in the changeroom the guys are not happy  and if you are not happy with a win by five points that is a sign of a team that is on the up.

“We have won eight on the bounce now and this was our first away win in three years in the Rugby Championship and it is also four away games on the trot,” The Bok coach pointed out.

Meyer admitted that his side were caught on the back foot in the first half, but added that he was pleased with the character they showed to keep the home side scoreless in the second half and grind out the win.

“We knew they were going to go back to their style of play and I wasn’t happy with the first half because we were not there physically and mentally.

“There were some harsh words at half-time and I though our captain was brilliant and they didn’t score a point in the second half.

“Last year in our first game we got four points and this year we got five, last year in Argentina we got two points and although we didn’t play well today we got four,” he said.

Meyer said that after their romp in Soweto last week it was always going to be tough for his side to maintain that dominance over a proud Pumas side looking for a big response on home soil.

“You are always in a lose-lose situation if you win by 70 points and travel away from home because people expect you to put another 50 on and we knew that they would be highly motivated and obviously you take your foot off the pedal but that is no excuse.

“After half-time they didn’t get any points and we started to play great rugby and get go-forward.

“Obviously you have to go back to the drawing board and there are a lot of things that we didn’t know about which we have to improve on.

“You always take a step backwards to take two steps forward so we will learn from this. I think tight away games are tough and there is a lot of travel but we don’t need to make excuses we must just learn from what we have done and go and win against Australia and New Zealand,” he said.

Meyer said that his side will now be far better prepared for what awaits them in Australia as they look to continue their unbeaten start to the tournament.

“I am not happy but I think it is great that it happened now, especially as we have got three games on the trot. I believe if this had not happened then we would have been in for a big hiding from Australia.

“We will take it on the chin, and we have to work harder and keep our feet on the ground but we are looking forward to Australia.

“I believe that if we had played open rugby and scored a lot of tries we wouldn’t have learned anything from this and we genuinely would have struggled against Australia.

“It is still going to be tough against Australia and this is one of those games where you take the points and focus on the next one. We don’t have any excuses we just have to play better,” he said.