SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — South Africa punished Argentina errors to win 37-13 on Sunday and set up a Rugby World Cup final with defending champion England.
The Springboks and England will each play for their second championship at Stade de France next Saturday, only five weeks after the Boks won their pool clash 36-0. That embarrassing defeat was the catalyst for England to rise up and win four straight matches, culminating with a 14-9 upset of host France on Saturday.
"The fact we beat them in the pool game is irrelevant," South Africa coach Jake White said. "It’s a World Cup final, it’s going to be completely different.
"I don’t think it’s sunk in yet that we’re playing in a World Cup final. It’s going to be meaningless if we don’t get a win next week."
Unlike the previous night’s nailbiting clash, South Africa robbed the second semifinal of any tension by reaching halftime 24-6 in front, benefiting from unforced errors by an Argentine side, which surprised most observers by trying to throw the ball around.
"They were markedly better than us and we were victims of our own mistakes," Argentina coach Marcelo Loffreda said.
Argentina, which had played tight, safety-first rugby and preyed on opposition errors to reach its first World Cup semifinal, entered with the best defensive record in the tournament in conceding only three tries. But the Pumas gave up that many by halftime, and four in all, two of them intercepts.
"Due to South African pressure, we made more mistakes than we usually make, and we paid dearly for it," Loffreda said.
Winger Bryan Habana crossed twice to give him a tournament-high eight tries, tying Jonah Lomu’s Cup record from 1999. Fourie du Preez and Danie Rossouw also touched down, while Percy Montgomery converted all four tries and added three penalties to tally 17, pushing his Cup-leading points total to 93.
Most believed the Springboks and Pumas would engage in a brutal collision up front, but the Argentines mainly steered clear of the bigger South Africans to let their backline stars find holes.
Things began ominously for the Pumas when, hot on attack, Felipe Contepomi’s pass was intercepted by scrum half du Preez, who scooted 75 yards for the first converted try. The only Argentines close to him were two medics rushing to check on fallen prop Rodrigo Roncero.
The winning team had scored first in the last eight semifinals since 1991, and the streak would continue.
In the 15th minute, South Africa captain John Smit was reported by a touch judge for messing with Argentina captain Agustin Pichot, negating a lineout five yards from the Pumas line, and Contepomi shot over his first penalty.
But Montgomery immediately restored the seven-point margin with a penalty.
Contepomi missed his second shot after changing balls, but made his third attempt to close the gap to 10-6 after 31 minutes.
Again, South Africa snuffed out Argentina’s rising hopes. When No. 8 Gonzalo Longo ran the ball deep into Boks territory, he was caught alone and stripped by Juan Smith. Midfielder Francois Steyn threw a giant cutout pass to du Preez, who fed Habana. He chipped ahead, regathered and scampered untouched to the line. Montgomery’s conversion made it 17-6 and all the tension disappeared at Stade de France.
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When another of the Pumas’ star backs, fly half Juan Martin Hernandez, dropped a pass around his quarterline in injury time, Steyn found a line of fast hands in Jaque Fourie and Schalk Burger to send in No. 8 Rossouw. Montgomery’s conversion lifted South Africa to 24-6.
Argentina ran into its changing room asked to pull off the biggest comeback in World Cup history.
It needed to score first, but few expected centre Manuel Contepomi to be given a try when he reached over the line in the 45th minute and appeared to drop the ball. But TV official Tony Spreadbury okayed the try, Felipe Contepomi converted, and the Pumas had their hopes restored at 24-13 down.
Contepomi missed a long-range penalty in the 56th minute, and it was the Pumas last shot.
"It’s a hugely sad day for us," Pichot said. "We felt (the final) was really achievable and we did everything in our power to get through, but it seemed beyond our reach.
"We wanted to get to the final, we wanted to be champions, but unfortunately it wasn’t possible."
Habana had a try disallowed off a forward pass from JP Pietersen but after two more Montgomery penalties, Habana scooted 75 yards from another intercept to score between the posts.
In a scrappy end, the Boks’ Juan Smith and Argentina’s Felipe Contepomi, up for world player of the year, finished the match in the sinbin.
While South Africa will face an England squad that looks forward to its chance of a first ever repeat triumph, France has to work out what went wrong and who should replace outgoing coach Bernard Laporte.
"We are one of the countries that has invested the most in rugby," said French rugby president Bernard Lapasset. "We are not world champions. That is one problem we will have to take up with the next coach. How to take French rugby even higher in the hierarchy."
France has been to two finals — and five out of six semifinals — so it has a consistent record in World Cups. Throughout hosting this one, however, it has been able to take a close look at the William Webb Ellis trophy without getting its hands on it.
"We are very disappointed with the result," France captain Raphael Ibanez said. "Sadness, anger, frustration. We were not far away (from beating England). It’s true that last night was tough. But rugby will go on."
Meanwhile Sebastien Chabal will appear before a Rugby World Cup disciplinary panel on Monday after being cited for a dangerously high tackle on England’s Simon Shaw.