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Argentina scored nine tries against Australia to claim their biggest win over the Wallabies by 67-27, while South Africa achieved their second consecutive victory over New Zealand, now by 18-12 in Cape Town, and are close to winning the 2024 Rugby Championship after the fourth round.
With this fourth win in as many games, after achieving two against Australia and another last week against the All Blacks, the Springboks strengthen their lead in this competition, which they have not won since 2019, and could be crowned in the next round if they beat Los Pumas away from home.
Last Saturday, South Africa had already beaten New Zealand in the third round in Johannesburg by 31-27, with a final comeback, as the Oceania team had led 27-17 in that match before the home team’s final reaction.
New Zealand, whose coach Scott Robertson made five changes to his XV compared to last week’s game, took a 9-3 lead at half-time on Saturday.
South African captain Siya Kolisi (49th minute) and hooker Malcolm Marx (74) scored the only tries in their team’s victory on Saturday.
In Santa Fe, Argentina recovered from last week’s narrow defeat (20-19) against the Wallabies and took fierce revenge with the largest historical difference of 40 points over the gold and green team.
Australia started better and took a 20-3 lead with tries from Tizzano and Kellaway. When it seemed that a great success for the Oceanians was coming, Argentina reacted fiercely and in 50 minutes they scored nine tries against the Australians, scored by Mateo Carreras, Julián Montoya, Juan Martín González, Pablo Matera, Joaquín Oviedo (2), Juan Cruz Mallia (2) and Lucio Cinti.
With this result, South Africa leads with 18 points, followed by Argentina (10), while New Zealand (7) is in third place and Australia (4) closes the table.
In the final two rounds of the Rugby Championship, South Africa will play Argentina on September 21 and host the same team a week later, on the 28th.
New Zealand visits Australia on the fifth matchday and will host them on the sixth and final matchday.
Positions:
J G E P PF PC Bonus Puntos
South Africa 4 4 0 0 112 58 2 18
Argentina 4 2 0 2 134 119 2 10
N. Zealand 4 1 0 3 111 97 3 7
Australia 4 1 0 3 66 149 0 4
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