Salta, Argentina: Handre Pollard scored 31 points as South Africa thrashed Argentina 46-13 in Salta on Saturday to win the Rugby Championship for the first time.
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The Springboks last won a competition in 2009 when they finished first in the Tri Nations, the forerunner of the Rugby Championship.
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Fly-half Pollard notched two tries and kicked three conversions and five penalties in a bonus-point victory for South Africa, who led 24-13 at half-time.
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South Africa finished with 12 points in a competition reduced to one round from the traditional two because of the World Cup in Japan from September 20.
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Australia, who stunned world champions New Zealand 47-26 earlier Saturday, came second with eight points followed by the All Blacks with six and the Pumas with two.
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Argentina collapsed in the second half after holding their own during the opening 40 minutes until a Pollard try gave South Africa an 11-point lead at the break.
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The nations meet again next Saturday, this time in Pretoria, in a warm-up international for the World Cup.
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It took the Pumas just 100 seconds to take the lead through a Santiago Cordero try on a clear, late southern hemisphere winter afternoon before a sell-out 22,190 crowd in the northwestern city.
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Cordero gathered a perfectly weighted cross kick from Nicolas Sanchez and held off Makazole Mapimpi to dive over in the corner.
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Sanchez converted and Argentina could not have wished for a better start as they sought to defeat the Springboks in South America for the third time in four seasons.
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Pollard reduced the deficit off a ninth-minute penalty and the visitors went in front soon after when Bongi Mbonambi scored off a rolling maul after a lineout.
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It was a particularly pleasing score for the Springboks, who have struggled this season to turn mauls into tries.
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The opening half then became a goal-kicking battle between playmakers Pollard and Sanchez with the South Africa kicking three penalties and converting his try in the final minute of the half.
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Sanchez had fewer opportunities and made the most of them, slotting the two penalties to keep the Pumas in touch for most of the half.
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But the Pollard try and conversion gave South Africa a 24-13 half-time advantage after a half in which the major difference between the teams was the scrums.
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