Rugby World Cup/ South Africa 37 Argentina 13:Argentina brought something fresh, different and vibrant from the long-established elite of the world game to this Coupe du Monde, but for them too, what looked like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity ended in the Stade de France.

Next Saturday's final will be contested by South Africa and England. Oh well.

So the final will be a first ever reprise of a pool match, made all the more remarkable by the Boks winning it 36-0. As this semi-final also showed, they have a formula that is almost unbeatable if they attain an early lead.

Ahead from an intercept try in the seventh minute, they soaked up pressure with their aggressive blitz defence, the best lock pairing in the world of Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha picking off eight Argentinian throws and Bryan Habana picking off a couple more long-range tries.

All told, their four tries were from a brace of intercepts and a brace of turnovers. This is the way of the world game at the business end of the World Cup.

The strutting, preening Steve Walsh wouldn't be everybody's idea of their favourite referee but in his defence, the ever-complaining Pumas and the ever-aggressive high-tackling Boks, who live continuously on the borderline of the rules, must be about the most difficult match-up around.

Agustin Pichot attempted to engage Walsh in continuous conversation, never a wise move. Unsurprisingly it all came to an acrimonious end, when Juan Smith was binned for tackling Juan Hernández around the neck and Felipe Contepomi, typical of his team's increasingly distracted temperament, followed for lashing out at Bismarck du Plessis.

All told, this was a bridge too far for the Pumas, and 16 handling errors confirmed as much.

Argentina took the game to the Boks from the kick-off, Ignacio Fernandez-Lobbe chasing down hanging restarts by Hernández and looked to probe what was a magnificently aggressive, impenetrable, blanket green defence. The Pumas' scrum was excellent, Rodrigo Roncero and Martin Scelzo working their socks off around the pitch to augment their work in the tight.

What glimpses of creativity or chance-taking there was came from the Pumas; Juan Hernandez, Luca Borges and Ignacio Corleto all daring to counter-attack when perhaps they should have played the percentages. And the longer this tournament has progressed the more it has shown that big defence and percentage rugby has paid over risk-taking.

Bearing in mind the last eight World Cup semi-finals have been won by the team who scored first, and also what strong front-runners the Springboks are through their defence's ability to soak up pressure and strike from turnovers, it was critical for the Pumas that they didn't fall behind early.

Alas, they were punished cruelly for their ambition, Contepomi's delayed flat pass and confused lines of running enabling Fourie du Preez to pick off an 80 metre intercept try as early as the seventh minute which Montgomery converted. Uh-oh. Game over?

Anxiousness began to creep into Argentina's play, Hernandez miscuing a left-footed drop goal, Felipe Contepomi dropping a loopy pass from Agustin Pichot, albeit Roncero brilliantly forcing a turnover penalty to minimise the cost. When the South African captain John Smit hung onto his counterpart Pichot off the ball, the alert Chris White spotted it, and a lineout on their own line became a Puma penalty which Felipe Contepomi landed.

Manuel Contepomi was penalised for not releasing, and Montgomery made it 10-3.

Felipe Contepomi was just wide with a well-struck 50 metre penalty but made no mistake when his brother Manuel nabbed an ill-advised counter-attacking run by Francois Steyn. But, having been undone by an intercept try, they were undone by a turnover try, Burger brilliantly ripping the ball from Gonzalo Longo. The alertness to the possibilities were impressive, Steyn throwing out a huge skip pass and the ball being moved on to Bryan Habana. Once he gathered his own chip over Borges, there was only one outcome.

With no decisions seemingly going their way, the Pumas' heads' visibly dropped. They needed half-time but instead worse followed with the last play of the half when Steyn pounced on a fumble by Hernandez from another looping pass by Pichot, quick hands by Jaque Fourie gave Danie Rossouw the run-in for a 24-6 interval lead.

The Pumas and the game needed an Argentinian score, and it arrived when Juan Fernandez-Lobbe pounced on turnover ball and he, Lucas Ostiglia and Mario Ledesma ran hard at the Springboks and although Manuel Contepomi nearly butchered the chance from Hernandez's pass, he just about grounded the ball after slipping.

That was pretty much was as good as it got for the Pumas. The Boks cranked up a gear, their one truly creative move of the night off their own ball seeing a well-worked, second phase, blindside move only being correctly disallowed for a forward pass from JP Pietersen to Habana.

Montgomery tagged on another couple of penalties anyway before Habana picked off an attempted skip pass by Hernandez for a trademark long-range intercept try - his eighth of the tournament. It's a simple formula, and so far it's worked for the Boks.

Scoring sequence: 7 mins: Pienaar try, Montgomery con 7-0; 15: F Contepomi pen 7-3; 17: Montgomery pen 10-3; 29: F Contepomi pen 10-6; 32: Habana try, Montgomery con 17-6; 40: Rossouw try, Montgomery con 24-6 (half-time 24-6); 44: M Contepomi try, F Contepomi con 24-13; 71: Montgomery pen 27-13; 75: Montgomery pen 30-13; 76: Habana try, Montgomery con 37-13.

SOUTH AFRICA: P Montgomery (Sharks); JP Pietersen (Sharks), J Fourie (Lions), F Steyn (Sharks), B Habana (Bulls); B James (Sharks), F du Preez (Bulls); O du Randt (Cheetahs), J Smit (Sharks, capt), CJ van der Linde (Cheetahs); B Botha (Sharks), V Matfield (Bulls); S Burger (Western Province), J Smith (Cheetahs), D Rossouw (Bulls). Replacements: J du Plessis (Cheetahs) for du Randt (44-49 and 72 mins), B Skinstad (Sharks) for Rossouw (75 mins), B du Plessis (Sharks) for Smit, J Muller (Sharks) for Botha (both 77 mins), A Pretorius (Lions) for James (78 mins). Sinbinned: J Smith (78 mins).

ARGENTINA: I Corleto (Stade Français); L Borges (Stade Français), M Contepomi (Newman), F Contepomi (Leinster), H Agulla (Hindú); J Hernández (Stade Français), A Pichot (Stade Français, capt); R Roncero (Stade Français), M Ledesma (Clermont Auvergne), J Scelzo (Clermont); I Fernandez Lobbe (Sale), P Albacete (Toulouse); L Ostiglia (Agen), J Fernandez Lobbe (Sale), G Longo (Clermont Auvergne). Replacements: O Hasan (Toulouse) for Scelzo (34 mins), R Alvarez Kareilis (Perpignan) for I F-Lobbe (53 mins), J-M Leguizamón (London Irish) for Ostiglia, G Tiesi (Biarritz) for M Contepomi (both 65 mins). Sinbinned: F Contepomi (79 mins).

Referee: Steve Walsh(New Zealand).