Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus refused to blame Manie Libbok for South Africa’s loss to Argentina in the Rugby Championship insisting that Los Pumas were the better team.

Libbok replaced Handre Pollard in the second half of the clash in Argentina and in the final knockings of the match, he had the opportunity to kick a penalty that would have sealed the win for the Boks.

However, the playmaker’s effort went wide and Los Pumas held on to clinch a 29-28 victory over the world champions.

We have gone down it shouldn’t have

The Springboks started the match with early tries from Aphelele Fassi and Jesse Kriel – both converted by Handre Pollard who added a penalty too – putting them into a 17-0 lead.

However, Argentina fought back through a Mateo Carreras try and when Kurt-Lee Arendse was sent to the sin bin, the Pumas pounced scoring two quick tries.

Felipe Contepomi’s side would lead 26-22 at halftime and added just three more points in the second, with Pollard and Libbok converting penalties of their own to set up a tense final few minutes.

After slotting a penalty earlier in the match, Libbok had a relatively easy kick to win the game for South Africa in the final minute of the match but is effort went wide.

However, Erasmus believes that his side should not have let it come down to a single kick at goal to decide the match as they could have won the game long before then adding that there were “no excuses” for the performance in the second half.

“I was really hoping that he would kick that over, not just for us to win the game but for him personally,” Erasmus told reporters after the match.

“He kicked well the whole week and kicked so well in the warm-up, he slotted everything but it’s pressure but the game shouldn’t have gone down to the wire of one man kicking it over.

“There were lots of opportunities where we lost the ball in line outs and just inside their 22 when we gave away a penalty, it was not a great display by us.

“He’ll get a lot of flack we all know that but he’ll have to find a way to manage that and I’m sure we will all get a lot of flack for him missing that kick.

“It shouldn’t have been on the last kick to win the game, we should have done it earlier.”

High praise for Los Pumas

Erasmus rued his side’s overall performance and believed that on the day, Argentina were the better team and deserved the win.

He spoke glowing about Los Pumas and their ability to make the game loose, which suits their style of play and their dangerous backline players and South Africa well into that trap.

“Argentina took their chances, a missed kick for us at the end and we could have been sitting here with smiles,” Erasmus added.

“But if we did so many things better it wouldn’t have come down to one point, one kick, so obviously the kicking we have to work on but there were other things like our lineout didn’t function well today.

“Argentina were very clever in the way that they made the game very loose which was well done by them.

“There wasn’t a problem with the emotions, we respect Argentina in the sense that we very much see the people of Argentina as very similar to South Africa. We see the passion is very similar to the people of South Africa and we know that they play with passion and pride and make it very personal.

“I don’t think that there was a lack of passion for either team out there, I think both teams showed a lot of passion. It came down to the rugby side of things and fixing the tactical side.”