Former Springboks coach Nick Mallett believes Argentina\u2019s excellent aerial game was one of the main reasons for their much-improved display against South Africa on Saturday.<\/p>\n
After cruising to an emphatic 67-30 victory over Los Pumas in the corresponding fixture in Durban the previous week, the Springboks were overwhelming favourites to build on that performance in the teams\u2019 rematch at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.<\/p>\n
It was a totally different story, though, as Los Pumas<\/a> delivered a much-improved effort, and the Springboks<\/a> were made to work very hard before clinching their 29-27 victory.<\/p>\n That result meant the Boks were crowned Rugby Championship<\/a> champions for the second successive year with the All Blacks finishing in second spot, while the Wallabies and Los Pumas had to be satisfied with third and fourth positions respectively.<\/p>\n And although Argentina finished at the bottom of the table, Mallett<\/a> was impressed by their performance in their final match of the tournament, especially the way they competed for high balls, which improved considerably since their previous match.<\/p>\n Big improvement from Argentina<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s interesting how much they improved though, because in Durban, we really dominated the aerial contest,\u201d the former Springboks head coach told the Talking Boks podcast with Brenden Nel.<\/p>\n \u201cSo in Durban, I think we probably dominated because there\u2019s a lot of our momentum (which) came from those high kicks, which were retrieved by (Ethan) Hooker and by (Cheslin) Kolbe, in fact, and by Canan Moodie.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were all outstanding in the air, but it was just role reversal in this game, and it pricked them.<\/p>\n