South Africa are the 2025 Rugby Championship champions. The Springboks won the title with a 29-27 victory against Argentina on Saturday in London, UK. The match brought the competition to a close for 2025. It remains to be seen when the competition will next be played.
Stella scrummaging from South Africa was the difference in the match. The Springboks won a staggering seven penalties from scrums during the contest. That said, South Africa’s victory did not come without controversy. Center Canan Moodie was yellow carded for head-on-head contact in attempting a tackle. After returning he knocked-on an Argentine pass with men over. He was very fortunate not to be yellow carded, and thus red carded.
Los Pumas were the protagonists early-on. Good ball had Marcos Kremer deep inside the opposition 22 down the left. Recycled play went right with Bautista Delguy slicing between two defenders to score. Santiago Carreras converted from wide.
South Africa responded with fly half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu opening their account with a penalty. Santiago Carreras canceled it out and added another for a 13-3 lead on 27 minutes.
The Springboks were not finding their rhythm but their superiority of the scrum gave them opportunities. Their first try was an example with scrum-half Cobus Reinach scoring on 38 minutes from a rampaging scrum.
On the other side of half-time, the scrum again led to Springboks’ points. With field position won the world ‘s no 1 team were hot on attack and Argentina lost Mayco Vivas to a yellow card; it was his second of the Rugby Championship. Malcolm Marx then capitalized by scoring the first of his two second-half tries from a lineout to maul move.
The scrum was the weapon again for the third South African try. With the penalty won, the Springboks attacked deep in the Pumas 22 again. Wave after wave culminated with Reinach scoring his second try. It came with a pass from the floor from replacement RG Snyman.
Marx then scored South Africa’s fourth, and final try. It was again following a scrum penalty which South Africa kicked for the corner. Replacement Puma Juan Martín González won the lineoiut against the throw by Simón Benítez Cruz was unable to secure the ball. Marx picked-up and darted forward. He was stopped short but quick ball had him over three phases later.
South Africa were 29-13 ahead and had a bonus point win. However, Argentina fought back to score twice in the final quarter. The first saw a poor pass from Cheslin Kolbe snatched by Bautista Delguy who ran 35 meters to score. It was not isolated as a grave error from Kolbe also provided Argentina a try seven days earlier in Durban.
The second Pumas late try came with time up. It interestingly occurred after Santiago Carreras missed a penalty. South Africa recovered only to concede a penalty for holding on. Argentina then kicked for the corner and went for a lineout to maul move. South Africa defended well and Santiago Carreras put in a cross-kick for Rodrigo Isgró in the right corner.
The final whistle saw South Africa celebrating back-to-back Rugby Championship titles for the first-time in history. Los Pumas’ narrow loss, meanwhile, sees attention quickly turning to November. Argentina will be in a war to retain their ranking so as to receive the most favorable possible draw for Rugby World Cup 2027. Felipe Contepomi’s team face Scotland, Wales and England in Edinburgh, Cardiff and London.
- 70,360 were in attendance at Twickenham Stadium.
- Julián Montoya became the most capped Pumas captain in history. He first led Argentina in 2021 against Romania. His 52 test as captain are followed by Agustín Creevy with 51, Lisandro Arbizu with 48, Hugo Porta with 38 and Agustín Pichot with 31.
- Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu passed the mark of 100 test match points for South Africa.
- Santiago Carreras scored 12 points to finish the 2025 Rugby Championship as Top Scorer with 72.
- Tomás Rapetti made his debut for Argentina, doing so at the age of 20.
- Both teams carried 408 meters. Argentina did so from 128 carries and South Africa from 118.
- Argentina had 52% Possession.
- Bautista Delguy had most meters made with 114.
- Marcos Kremer was the top tackler with 17. Pedro Rubiolo and Julián montoya were next with 14 each.
- Malcolm Marx was the top turn-over winner with 2 steals.
- 8 of the 14 penalties conceded by Argentina were by props.
ARGENTINA (27)
TRY – B Delguy 2 (4′, 66′), R Isgró (80′)
CON – S Carreras (5′, 66′, 80′)
PEN – S Carreras (18′, 27′)
YC – M Vivas (43′)
SOUTH AFRICA (29)
TRY – C Reinach 2 (38′, 52′), M Marx 2 (44′, 58′)
CON – S Feinberg-Mngomezulu (53′, 39′, 59′)
PEN – S Feinberg-Mngomezulu (10′)
YC – C Moodie (1′)
ARGENTINA
1 Mayco Vivas, 2 Julián Montoya (capt.), 3 Francisco Coria Marchetti, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 6 Pablo Matera, 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Santiago Grondona, 9 Simón Benítez Cruz, 10 Gerónimo Prisciantelli, 11 Juan Cruz Mallía, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 13 Justo Piccardo, 14 Bautista Delguy, 15 Santiago Carreras
Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Boris Wenger, 18 Tomás Rapetti, 19 Franco Molina, 20 Juan Martín Gonzalez, 21 Joaquín Oviedo, 22 Agustín Moyano, 23 Rodrigo Isgró
SOUTH AFRICA
1 Ox Nche, 2 Malcolm Marx, 3 Thomas du Toit, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 5 Ruan Nortje, 6 Siya Kolisi (capt.), 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 8 Jasper Wiese, 9 Cobus Reinach, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 11 Ethan Hooker, 12 Damian de Allende, 13 Canan Moodie, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 15 Damian Willemse
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Grant Williams, 22 Manie Libbok, 23 Jesse Kriel
Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)
Assistant Referees: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia), Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
Television Match Official: Ian Tempest (England)
Split Screen/FPRO: Matteo Liperini (Italy)
