Difficult, yes. Impossible, no. Because there is nothing that is impossible. And less for these Pumas version 2024. That will be the motto from now until Saturday, September 28, the day they will meet again with the Springboks in it Mbombela Stadium for the final date of this unforgettable Rugby Championship. After the epic victory this Saturday in Santiago del Estero over the South Africans, current two-time world champions, the team Felipe Contepomi He hopes to be the winner of the tournament that brings together the four powers of the Southern Hemisphere for the first time in history.
What should happen? They must win as visitors – something they already achieved in 2015, in Durban, in one of the four victories in history. But they must do so under two conditions.
There is no choice but to take out the calculator to understand the accounts. With this Saturday’s victory, Argentina reached 14 points and was second in the standings behind South Africa, which has 19 points.
So things, The Pumas are forced to beat the two-time world champions at home. But not everything is so linear. There are two asterisks. They have to win with a bonus point – that is, score four or more tries – and prevent their rival from adding a defensive bonus point – that is, the margin of defeat is greater than seven points.
In this way, the two selected teams will be tied on 19 points and the balance will lean towards Argentina. The thing is that in the fine print of the regulations it is specified that the first tiebreaker criterion is the result of the series. And in this case, it would be a historic resounding 2-0 for the light blue and white.
Whatever happens, coronal or no coronal, this Rugby Championship will go down in history for Argentina. For the first time they were able to beat the All Blacks, the Wallabies and now the Springboks in the same edition. Awesome.
The 14 points earned, in addition, They are already a record for Los Pumas because they left behind the 9 that they had collected in 2022. They also surpassed the winning record. The best so far were the two victories they won in the 2018 editions (32-19 against South Africa in Mendoza and 23-19 against Australia in Gold Coast) and 2022 (48-17 over Australia in San Juan and 25-18 against New Zealand in Christchurch), when they finished in fourth position. In the worst case scenario, now, they will be third.
The evolution is substantial in this cycle that has just begun with Felipe Contepomi as helmsman. We must not forget that there were five editions in which Argentina left without smiles (2012, 2013, 2017, 2019 and 2021). And there were others in which they were barely able to achieve a victory, such as in 2014 (21-17 against Australia in Mendoza), 2015 (37-25 against South Africa in Durban), 2016 (26-24 against South Africa in Salta), 2020 (25 -15 against New Zealand in Sydney) and 2023 (34-31 against Australia in Sydney).
In 2024, in addition to beating New Zealand again as visitors – in their debut – the Argentines achieved the largest victory since they joined this competition with a 67-27 victory over the Wallabies in Santa Fe two weeks ago. History while walking.