A modicum of salvation for South Africa against the darling of the neutrals

For South Africa, a tournament that started in such embarrassment at least concluded with a modicum of salvation.

[STORY: South Africa take bronze medal against Argentina]

Few back home will be celebrating long into the night after their 24-13 victory over Argentina at the Olympic Stadium on Friday, but many will acknowledge the Springboks’ third-place finish in this World Cup should be considered something of a par score for them - perhaps even slightly better than that, considering the relative pessimism that surrounded the team’s prospects prior to this competition and the shock that met their opening pool defeat at the hands of Japan.

“I would love to get a gold medal (instead), but I’m proud of the boys,” coach Heyneke Meyer said.

“We asked a lot of the guys to bounce back from the last week … both teams were tired. A bronze medal is better than fourth place.”

Argentina, the great entertainers of this competition, could not match their bronze finish in 2007 - their big breakthrough in the sport - but nevertheless departed as the darling of the neutrals, thanks to their penchant and proficiency for running rugby that was sporadically in evidence in this denouement, even if ultimately it felt that victory had been moved out of their grasp within the first few phases.

Nevertheless, the jolt of excitement that each Puma line break sent through the crowd - sparking some of the only sustained cheers on a respectful, restrained night in Stratford - and the passion it engendered will not soon be forgotten, and should be dwelt upon by coaches and rule-makers in the weeks and months to come.

If union is to go on and thrive - even, god forbid, in a future without Sam Burgess! - then it needs to find a way to cultivate a wider culture for this sort of expansive, running rugby.

“We can learn from this, we have to go on now,” Argentina’s captain, Tomas Cubelli, said.

“I think it was a good tournament for us, it was a pity to finish like this but we were playing a very good team.

“A lot of people are starting to cheer for us, and in Argentina, we are hoping to make the sport more popular. This is good for us.”

This was a difficult game to place. In theory one of the most important matches in the sport, in reality it struggled to conjure the respectful atmosphere of an autumn exhibition involving the Barbarians, let alone the frenzied anticipation of a Test match involving two of the best sides in the game.

With Twickenham’s pitch preserved for the real McCoy 20 hours later, this match was instead played at a former athletics stadium in the process of being converted for football - rugby very much an after-thought.

It was nearly a sell-out but it was far from a partisan crowd, with fans of any number of other nations (ranging from those evidently very optimistic pre-tournament, Scotland, Italy, England, to those of unrewarded pessimism, New Zealand, Australia) matching those with an evident vested interest in affairs.

Those leaving early, to avoid the traffic, were numerous.

There were further incongruities. Argentina, who stressed the importance of winning this decider, selected a rotated XV with an average age of 23; South Africa, who had barely concealed their disregard for this fixture in the week beforehand, went with their full-strength line-up.

Perhaps this played a role in defining the flow of the game, which felt over almost within the first 10 minutes. Cubelli was sin-binned after only four minutes for delaying the ball at the breakdown, and winger JP Pietersen exploited the additional space to cross the whitewash just minutes later.

By the time Cubelli returned the team in green were 10-0 up, and at half-time they were 16-0 clear thanks to the pinpoint kicking of Handre Pollard.

That took Pollard ahead of Nicolas Sanchez in the individual points list for this World Cup, although the Argentina fly-half reassumed the lead with a drop-kick to put his team on the board immediately after the break.

With Bryan Habana, one try away from breaking Jonah Lomu’s all-time try record in the World Cup, dropping every unlocking pass thrown his way, this individual battle threatened to become the only intrigue of the final half-hour (Australia’s Bernard Foley, 22 points behind, has only a moderate chance of surpassing them on Sunday).

In the end it was Sanchez that won out, his final conversion from substitute Juan Pablo Orlandi’s try easing him to 97 points for the tournament - a personal success that perhaps illustrates the overall attacking edge that the South Americans brought to this party.

In contrast Habana, substituted in the 68th minute, waved goodbye without the try he needed for his own slice of history. He cannot say he did not have his chances - although through an early score chalked off by the TMO and other openings squandered by poor handling he carried himself in the manner of a man who felt it would not be the worst thing in the world to finish alongside Lomu in the record books.

South Africa were clear and deserved winners on the night, although no-one in attendance will have confused either team for one that was worthy of replacing either of Saturday’s two finalists. The gulf between Australia and (particularly) New Zealand and the rest has been significant this month, even if individual matches have not always been so clear-cut.

That will disappoint a South Africa side that has developed high standards since winning it all in such poignant fashion in 1995. Meyer’s team never really established themselves as genuine contenders for overall victory this time, however, the cracks exposed by Japan never entirely erased by the wins that followed.

The quarter-final success against Wales was hard-fought but, taking the tournament as a whole, the gap between them and the two finalists was far wider than the 20-18 margin of their semi-final loss to the All Blacks.

Meyer seemed to be a lame duck coach following that Brighton mauling, but subsequent results have led to some mumblings that he should lead them into 2019. That is a decision for another time, but if this is his World Cup bow - like Habana, Schalk Burger and Victor Matfield - then he can take a real satisfaction from the way his side reacted to adversity.

“I’m just so relieved we won the game,” Matfield reflected. “It’s been my life’s work. It’s been a fantastic career but I’m just happy we won the game tonight.”

“It’s not what you strive for, third place, but you want to finish on a high,” one of the younger team-mates now taking on the mantle, Damian de Allende, offered. “We’ll take it this time and come back fighting in the next tournament.”

Meyer allowed himself to sit between those two perspectives.

“At this stage I’ll just enjoy tonight,” Meyer evaded. “I’ll take a day or two then get back in the saddle, think about my future.”

The task now facing both sides is to make the leap towards the final in four years’ time. For a game with such a confused identity it is hardly surprising that history offers few clues: Five teams have graduated from the bronze play-off to the main event four years later, but seven teams have regressed back to a quarter-final exit or worse. Seemingly it is easier to do the later than the former.

Argentina, with four more years in the Rugby Championship and the first footsteps of a self-determined Super League franchise under their belt, will hope such trials will give them the missing attributes - a bit more workcraft at the breakdown, perhaps, and a slightly more refined defensive discipline - they need to bridge the gap that still exists.

South Africa, confident they have the fundamentals, will simply hope they can develop the required class of player to replace the experience, brilliant veterans that bowed out - with the victory they deserved - on Friday night.