As part of their preparations for the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Tour South Africa are in Buenos Airies for a clash with Argentina on Saturday night.
Argentina vs South Africa, Saturday 8th August, Buenos Aires, KO 21:00 (South African time)
Referee: Pierre Brousset (France)
Assistant referees: Luc Ramos (France), Craig Evans (Wales)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Weather Forecast – Buenos Aires
Argentina:
Argentina’s campaign in the recently launched Nations Championship began on a losing not when they were beaten 47-38 by Scotland in Cordoba. They did beat Wales 35-21 in Round 2, doing all the damage in the first half but last time out they went down 31-24 to England in Santiago. Los Pumas picked up 7 log points from those 3 matches which makes them fourth best in the South and already 8 points adrift of the Boks and All Blacks.
South Africa:
The Springboks home fixtures in the first 3 rounds of the Nations Championship pretty much went to plan with bonus point wins over England (45-21), Scotland (42-28) and then Wales (43-0). The All Blacks also have the maximum 15 log points but the Boks have a better points difference and they top the southern standings.
The Boks are gearing up for a 4 match series against the All Blacks with the first test taking place at Ellis Park on the 22nd August, Cape Town and Soweto will also host tests and the series then concludes in Baltimore in the USA. Early betting is already out for the first test in Joburg and South Africa are -7.5 point favourites on the bookmakers main handicap line.
First up it’s this one off test with Argentina and players returning from injury including Siya Kolisi, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth and Morne van den Berg were all included in the traveling party.
Recent Head to Head
2025 RC Twickenham Argentina 27–29 South Africa
2025 RC Durban South Africa 67–30 Argentina
2024 RC Nelspruit South Africa 48-7 Argentina
2024 RC Santiago Argentina 29–28 South Africa
2023 RC Johannesburg South Africa 22-21 Argentina
Team News
Argentina: 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 (captain), 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
South Africa: 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, 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 Berg, 23 Handre Pollard
The Betting
Updated 07 Aug 16h29
Argentina +18.5 points at 9/10
South Africa -8.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Bet: Argentina v South Africa
Posted 07 August 1h28
Bet: 2 units (1–5) – South Africa to win by 11–20 points inclusive at 3/1 with BetXchange.
South Africa are strong favourites here at -18.5, and my first thought was to take Argentina on the plus. They haven't had a great season though and are missing a few players, while South Africa will be gearing up for the upcoming New Zealand series, so I'm a little wary of getting involved in the handicap.
The total points line of 60.5 is tempting from an overs perspective, particularly with conditions looking likely to be good. I'm going to sit that market out for now, though, and may post a play in the Goodforthegame forum tomorrow if I decide to get involved.
Instead, I'm going for a speculative play that won't break the bank and backing South Africa to win by 11–20 points inclusive at 3/1.
More rugby bets from Brent can be found in the Currie Cup Blog whilst tips from other members of our community are posted on the weekly rugby thread on our brand new discussion forum. If you haven't done so already, register a forum account here.
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.