Springboks v Los Pumas: The stage is set

ARGENTINA v SOUTH AFRICA @ ESTADIO JOSÉ AMALFITANI, BUENOS AIRES – KO 4PM (9PM SAST)

REFEREE NOTES

Christophe Ridley (England)

Test debut: 18 November, 2017 – Portugal 45-12 Czech Republic

Tests as referee: 16

• Christophe Ridley has stepped in to replace Pierre Brousset as referee after the French official suffered an injury in training.

• Ridley will take charge of this fixture for the second time, having overseen Argentina’s 29-28 victory on his Rugby Championship debut in Santiago del Estero in September 2024.

• Argentina have won both of their matches with Ridley in the middle, also edging Australia 28-26 in Sydney in the 2025 Rugby Championship.

• This will be the first time that Ridley referees South Africa since a 32-15 victory over Scotland at Murrayfield in the 2024 Autumn Nations Series.

• This is Ridley’s third Test of the year, having been in the middle for Wales’ 31-17 defeat of Italy in the Guinness Men’s Six Nations in March and Australia’s 57-10 victory over the Azzurri in the Nations Championship last month.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

1993-2025 | Played 40 | Argentina 4 | South Africa 35 | Draw 1

Points for: Argentina 754/South Africa 1 344 (Avg. score: 19-33)

Highest score: Argentina 37 (37-25 on 8 August, 2015)/South Africa 73 (73-13 on 17 August, 2013)

Biggest winning margin: Argentina 13 (32-19 on 25 August, 2018)/South Africa 60 (73-13 on 17 August, 2013)

First met: 6 November, 1993 – South Africa 29-26 Argentina – Ferro Carril Oeste Stadium, Buenos Aires

• South Africa lost to Los Pumas on their last visit to Argentina in 2024, falling to a 29-28 defeat in Santiago de Estero.

• Argentina have beaten the Springboks at home on three occasions, the others being 26-24 in Salta in 2016 and 32-19 in Mendoza in 2018.

• Cobus Reinach and Malcolm Marx bagged a brace of tries apiece in their most recent encounter, a 29-27 win for the Springboks on neutral territory in Twickenham.

• Marx has scored in each of the last three matches against Los Pumas.

• Bautista Delguy scored twice for Los Pumas in that Rugby Championship encounter.

• Rodrigo Isgro also crossed at the death to hand the ‘home’ side a losing bonus point.

• Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu set a new Springbok record for most points in a Test by a single player in the 67-30 win in Durban in 2025, his 37 points made up of three tries, eight conversions and two penalties.

• At least one yellow card has been shown in each of the last nine matches, with an overall total of 20 yellows and a red (Pablo Matera in Mbombela in 2024) in that time.

• The 38-21 win for South Africa in Durban in 2022 featured six yellow cards (four Argentina, two South Africa).

TEAM NOTES

• Argentina are fourth in the southern hemisphere standings with seven points from their first three Nations Championship matches.

• Argentina have only won three of their last eight matches at home (last month’s 35-21 victory v Wales and 29-23 v New Zealand and 52-17 v Uruguay in 2025).

• Los Pumas have conceded more than 20 points in each of their last 12 matches, dating back to the 52-17 win over Uruguay.

• Argentina are the only team to boast a 100% goal-kicking record (14/14).

• Argentina are one of three teams to still have a 100% success rate on their own feed at the scrum (11/11). Australia and Scotland are the others.

• They have conceded the fewest penalties (22) but the second-most yellow cards (four) behind England (six).

• Argentina are one of only two teams (also Japan) to have (unsuccessfully) attempted a drop goal.

• Argentina have been awarded the only penalty try of the Nations Championship so far (in the 31-24 defeat to England).

• Los Pumas have only retained one of their 20 restarts, the lowest percentage (5%) in the competition.

• No 8 Joaquin Oviedo is ranked first for most carries (60) and is joint-third for most tries (three).

SQUAD NOTES

• Ten Test rookies have been named in a 36-strong group, with two of the uncapped contingent – flanker Facundo Cardozo and centre Benjamín Ortiz – brought into the fold for ‘development’ purposes.

• Franco Carrera, Agustín Fraga, Francisco Moreno, Leonel Oviedo, Juan Penoucos, Juan Martín Scelzo, Mateo Soler and Tobías Wade will all hope to see their first Test action for Los Pumas.

• Captain Julián Montoya and flyhalf Tomás Albornoz, who has been suspended for four matches for misconduct by World Rugby, are among the list of unavailable players.

• Loosehead prop Rodrigo Martínez and veteran second-row Tomás Lavanini make returns after lengthy absences.

• Martínez has never featured previously under Contepomi, while second-row and 91-cap veteran Tomás Lavanini is set for his first Test outing since a 48-7 defeat by South Africa in September 2024.

• Matías Moroni will become the seventh Puma to win 100 caps – and the third this year – if he plays in all three Tests across August and September.

• Guido Petti and Matías Alemanno became Test centurions in July.

COACH NOTES

• Felipe Contepomi replaced Michael Cheika as Argentina head coach in December 2023.

• He has a 48.1% winning record (P27, W13, L14), discounting the 2025 game against the British & Irish Lions which did not carry Test status.

• The former Los Pumas captain made his professional head coaching debut in 2015 with Argentina XV, before taking assistant roles with the Jaguares, Leinster and, most recently, Los Pumas.

• As an assistant to Cheika, Contepomi helped guide Argentina to a fourth-place finish at Rugby World Cup 2023.

• During his 15-year Test career as a skilful flyhalf/centre, 48-year-old Contepomi won 87 caps, 25 as captain, scored 651 points and played in four Rugby World Cups, including the historic third-place finish in 2007.

TEAM NOTES

• South Africa are top of the southern hemisphere standings on points difference, having picked up maximum points from their first three Nations Championship fixtures.

• The Springboks’ points difference is +81, 30 better than fellow unbeaten side New Zealand.

• South Africa are currently on an 11-match winning streak, dating back to the 24-17 defeat by New Zealand at Eden Park in the 2025 Rugby Championship.

• It is South Africa’s best run under Rassie Erasmus and the most consecutive wins since they achieved 13 in a row between 2007-08.

• South Africa have only lost two of their last 21 Tests (38-22 v Australia at Ellis Park in August and 24-17 v New Zealand).

• With the win over Scotland in round two, South Africa became the first team since England (2002-03) to beat every Men’s Six Nations and Rugby Championship team in a 12-month period.

• South Africa have scored the most points (130) and tries (20) in the Nations Championship.

• Strong starters and finishers, seven of South Africa’s tries have been scored in the first quarter and seven in the final quarter.

• South Africa have yet to concede any tries in the first half an hour in any of their matches this year.

• The Springboks have had the most entries into the opposition 22 across the first three rounds (43).

• Following this match, South Africa return home for the four-Test Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour series with New Zealand.

• The first three Tests – on 22 and 29 August and 5 September – take place in South Africa with the fourth in Baltimore, USA, on 12 September.

SQUAD NOTES

• A streamlined squad of 26 players has travelled to Argentina, with captain Siya Kolisi, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth and Morné van den Berg among the notable returnees after being absent through injury.

• Several senior players, including Cheslin Kolbe, Damian Willemse, Jesse Kriel and Ruan Nortje, have remained in South Africa to prepare for the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series against New Zealand.

• Paul de Villiers, Ruben van Heerden, Vusi Moyo, Carlu Sadie and Jaco Williams were all handed Test debuts in the first three rounds of the Nations Championship.

• Rassie Erasmus has again fielded a much-changed line-up with only seven players retained in the match-day squad from the Nations Championship victory over Wales, only two of them in the starting line-up in Aphelele Fassi and Cobus Reinach.

• Kolisi returns to captain the side with Etzebeth, Feinberg-Mngomezulu, De Jager, Andre Esterhuizen, Ethan Hooker and Van den Berg also back to bolster the Springboks after injuries, although the latter starts from the bench alongside Handré Pollard.

COACH NOTES

• Rassie Erasmus returned to the Springbok head coach role in February 2024, signing a contract that takes him through to the end of 2027.

• The win over Les Bleus at the Stade de France on 8 November was his 50th as head coach.

• He has overseen 30 Tests in his second spell, winning 26 and losing four (86.7%).

• Overall, he has been in charge of 55 Tests (head coach/director of rugby) and moved past Jake White as the Springboks’ most experienced coach during the Nations Championship.

• Erasmus was the mastermind behind the Springboks’ back-to-back Rugby World Cup successes of 2019 and 2023 – as head coach and then director of rugby.

• He also led South Africa to their first Rugby Championship title in five years in 2024 and a clean sweep of victories in the Autumn Nations Series that followed.

• His first reign in charge started with a defeat to Wales in Washington DC in June 2018.

• Erasmus won 36 caps for South Africa as a back-row forward from 1997-2001.

YOU KNOW …?

• The Visa Galicia Cup will be at stake in each of the three games Argentina play over the next month against South Africa and Australia.

WORLD RUGBY MEN’S RANKINGS PERMUTATIONS

• South Africa will not gain any rating points for beating Argentina, a consequence of the 10.83 point differential between the two teams.

• However, a loss to Los Pumas on Argentinian soil will see South Africa surrender top spot to New Zealand.

• Argentina will climb above Scotland into sixth place with victory with a win by more than 15 points enough to also jump England.

• Los Pumas cannot fall from seventh place as Australia are unable to gain enough points by beating Japan in Osaka to catch them.

Argentina starting XV: 15 Geronimo Prisciantelli, 14 Rodrigo Isgró, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Faustino Sánchez Valarolo, 11 Ignacio Mendy; 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Simón Benítez Cruz; 8 Joaquín Moro, 7 Benjamín Grondona, 6 Pablo Matera (capt); 5 Tomás Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti; 3 Francisco Moreno, 2 Ignacio Ruiz, 1 Boris Wenger. Replacements: 16 Leonel Oviedo, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Tomás Rapetti, 19 Efraín Elías, 20 Juan Penoucos, 21 Juan Martín Scelzo, 22 Agustín Moyano, 23 Matías Moroni.

Springbok starting XV: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Ethan Hooker; 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Cobus Reinach; 8 Cameron Hanekom, 7 Elrigh Louw, 6 Siya Kolisi (capt); 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth; 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Boan Venter. Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Zachary Porthen, 19 Ben-Jason Dixon, 20 Cobus Wiese, 21 Marco van Staden, 22 Morne van den Ber, 23 Handre Pollard.