Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has dismissed suggestions that Argentina are rugby’s bad boys despite the controversy that engulfed the Pumas after their ill-tempered Nations Championship defeat to England.
Los Pumas came under heavy criticism following their 34-21 loss in July, a fiery encounter that produced seven yellow cards, a World Rugby misconduct charge against flyhalf Tomás Albornoz for making physical contact with referee Angus Gardner, and an abrupt walkout from head coach Felipe Contepomi’s post-match press conference over what he perceived to be disrespect from England.
Ahead of Saturday night’s clash with the Springboks in Buenos Aires, Pumas legend Federico Méndez urged the current generation to “behave and control themselves”.
But Erasmus insisted South Africa are expecting a fiercely contested contest rather than an ill-disciplined one.
“We know Argentina well. We play them twice every year apart from this year, so we know their players, and they know us,” Erasmus said on Tuesday.
“Some of our players play with them at French clubs, others play with them in Japan, so we’ve come a long way with their guys.
“What happened in their previous game in terms of the refereeing is not for us to comment. We’ve got Christophe Ridley as the referee for this weekend.
“Obviously the new protocols make it quite tough to communicate with the referee before a game. But we’ve never experienced Argentina to be a team that’s negative or too feisty. Obviously they’re hard men and physical guys, but we’ve never found them to be unsportsmanlike.”
The match against England was marred by repeated flashpoints, with seven yellow cards shared between the teams and several on-field scuffles. Albornoz was subsequently charged by World Rugby after confronting Gardner when a late try that could have levelled the scores was overturned.
Contepomi also ended his post-match media conference after only four minutes, accusing England of showing “a lack of respect” because of loud celebrations and music coming from the neighbouring changing room.
Like Erasmus, Contepomi has used the fixture to broaden his squad, introducing 10 newcomers, most of them youngsters, as he looks to build depth ahead of next year’s World Cup.
Erasmus is also balancing the need for victory with the opportunity to reintegrate players returning from injury and expose less experienced squad members to international rugby.
“Mostly we want to win,” Erasmus said. “If we do win, the margin of victory is not the important thing. We have a lot of important guys coming back from injury, plus some who are not settled in the team like Cameron Hanekom, Elrigh Louw and Boan Venter, guys who have only a few caps.
“So that suggests it won’t be perfect, but if we get increasingly better, grow into the game and get more in sync, then the game will go our way, while game time is established for the guys returning from injury.”
