The Springboks, who will have plenty of soul-searching to do ahead of next month’s World Cup in England, were sloppy and disjointed against an Argentina side more intelligent in their execution and dominant in every facet of the game.
Centre Marcelo Bosch scored Argentina’s other try, and added a long-range penalty and a drop-goal, with experienced flyhalf Juan Martin Hernandez, playing his first test of 2015, landing four conversions and a penalty.
South Africa scored tries through lock Lood de Jager, fullback Willie le Roux and wing Bryan Habana, with out of sorts flyhalf Handre Pollard kicking two penalties and two conversions.
“We surprised them, starting with the early try,” Argentina coach Daniel Hourcade said. “We played well and we won the mental battle. That is the key to beating the Springboks, you need to be mentally tough.”
After second-ranked South Africa's slim defeats by Australia and New Zealand earlier in the Rugby Championship, the latest setback means they head into their final World Cup warm-up in Buenos Aires next Saturday on the back of three straight losses.
“It’s just not good enough, we conceded such easy tries,” Bok captain Jean de Villiers told reporters. “It was too easy for them. We had to work hard for our tries and then we conceded such soft ones and that costs you games.”
Argentina claimed their first success over the Boks at the 20th time of asking and fully deserved their triumph.
They set the tone with a score in the first minute as Bosch burst past some poor defending to dot down under the posts.
Imhoff grabbed a double to help the visitors into a 21-6 lead five minutes before halftime but De Jager powered over from a five-metre line-out to reduce that deficit to eight points.
But when prop Tendai Mtawarira gave away a soft penalty straight from the restart and fellow front-rower Vincent Koch his third penalty of the half at the scrum, Argentina went into the break leading 27-13.
Imhoff went over in the corner from a quickly-taken penalty five-metres out for his hat-trick before Le Roux closed the gap again.
But a drop-goal from Bosch kept Argentina in front by 17 points going into the final 15 minutes, with South Africa managing only a late Habana try.
(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Ken Ferris; editing by Ken Ferris)
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