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Lessons learned for Boks

Cape Town - Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer insists his side will learn valuable lessons from their scrappy performance against Argentina in Mendoza on Saturday.

As it happened: Argentina v SA

VIDEO: Eye gouge on Francois Louw

The Boks scraped through for a 22-17 win, which was a far cry from their 73-13 demolition of the Pumas the previous week in Soweto.

But Meyer believes they can take a lot from their lacklustre display and that it will stand them in good stead for upcoming away games against Australia and New Zealand.

"I am obviously not happy, it was not good enough. If you look in the change room the guys are not happy and if you are not happy with a win by five points that is a sign of a team that is on the up," Meyer told the Rugby365 website.

"We have won eight on the bounce now and this was our first away win in three years in the Rugby Championship and it is also four away games on the trot.

"We knew they were going to go back to their style of play and I wasn't happy with the first half because we were not there physically and mentally.

"There were some harsh words at half-time and I thought our captain was brilliant and they didn't score a point in the second half.

"Last year in our first game we got four points and this year we got five, last year in Argentina we got two points and although we didn't play well today we got four," said Meyer.

Meyer also said it was good that they received a wake-up call now, rather than it happening in Australasia.

"I am not happy but I think it is great that it happened now, especially as we have got three (away) games on the trot. I believe if this had not happened then we would have been in for a big hiding from Australia.

"We will take it on the chin, and we have to work harder and keep our feet on the ground but we are looking forward to Australia.

"I believe that if we had played open rugby and scored a lot of tries we wouldn't have learned anything from this and we genuinely would have struggled against Australia.

South Africa's next Test in the competition is against Australia in Sydney on September 7.
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