Erasmus got the difficult Test he wanted against Argentina, and the 17-10 win raised more questions than it answered. The most pressing one is the half-back combination: Reinach and Feinberg-Mngomezulu were the least convincing Springboks on the park, controlling neither tempo nor territory, and South Africa go into the Ellis Park Test with a first-choice axis that has one shared cap and produced nothing resembling a game plan on Saturday night. Feinberg-Mngomezulu's ankle held, but he spent the night forcing the explosive moment rather than building one, and finished with more carries than almost anyone.
Beyond the halves, the aerial game was broken — kicks went past their own chase repeatedly, Isgró fed cleanly all night, and Mendy made four clean breaks off that free ball — and the defensive system survived Argentina's designed answer to the rush only through scramble rather than structure. The midfield attack worked exactly once, through a specific combination of Esterhuizen drawing in defenders and Van der Merwe finishing wide, and replicating it demands settled personnel that Erasmus hasn't had. Then there's Kolisi, who lasted 24 minutes before leaving with a hamstring concern, which turns a selection certainty into a question. Erasmus has signalled the rotation era is over and the series against New Zealand demands a settled side — the piece argues the men best equipped to fix Buenos Aires never played in it.