South Africa 29 Argentina 10

Frustrated in the first half, South Africa got their act together in the second to dismiss Argentina and set up a replay of last year's World Rugby Classic final against the Barbarians.

South Africa were down 3-0 at the break but a lightning hat-trick by Andre Pawson just after the restart paved the way for Carel Du Plessis' men to emerge victorious from last night's semi-final with a 29-10 win at the National Sports Centre.

Such a scoreline seemed improbable just minutes before the half with both sides unable to make the breakthrough.

South Africa came close on several occasions but just as it seemed they would go over for the score they were interrupted by the referee's whistle, possession was handed over and the Pumas were able to bring the ball away from danger.

"In the first we didn't give the support to the ball carriers. We were standing off and waiting for passes to be made. Nobody was prepared to really go in and do some of the hard work," said Du Plessis afterwards.

"In the second half we decided we needed to get it going to give us at least a chance to run into space and it worked for us.

"Once we broke the defensive line we wanted to get one or two players down the same channel to really give momentum to it. Then we knew we would pull them in and open the gaps, either out wide or on the points.

"It worked for us and I am happy that we were able to swing it because I thought it was going to be much tighter."

Before the Springboks mounted their charge, Rafael Madero had nudged the Pumas in front with a penalty kick in first-half injury time.

It was met with some derision from the stands, but if the South Americans were going to make any headway they needed to take any opportunities that came their way.

Sadly, for them at least, they were not able to build on the advantage and some delightful inter-passing enabled South Africa to carve open their opponents almost at will during the final half-hour.

Pawson made it 5-3 after the ball was fed wide from a scrum and then in a copycat try he extended the lead by a further five points, Theo Van Rensburg missing both conversions.

Richard Britton then went over for one of the easiest tries he will ever have scored, his team-mates doing the donkey work on the right before feeding him. Placing the ball beneath the posts he enabled Eric Herbert to make a straightforward conversion for 17-3.

The Argentines were unable to cope with Pawson and he notched his third try of the evening in the exact same spot as the previous two after 45 minutes, Herbert again doing the business with the boot - albeit via the cross bar and the post.

That extended the score to 24-3 and and five more points were added to the tally when Quinton Daniels broke through.

The Argentines did not completely throw in the towel, however, and Pablo Soto dived full length for a consolation try with a minute left and then kicked the conversion for good measure.

But the joy was all South African at the end and Du Plessis can set about masterminding a plan to overcome the men from the home nations.

"It will be tough, it always is," he said. "The semi-final last night (Wednesday) was tough and in a way it's sad to hear about one or two players being injured.

"That's unfortunate but both teams have shown in the past that they like to try and keep the ball alive and play constructively and positively and entertain the crowd - that's the idea."

Earlier, Canada set up a chance to avenge last year's Plate semi-final loss to the Iberians when they overcame local rivals the USA 25-10.

"We are quite pleased," said centre Tom Woods. "We knew exactly what we were up against with the Americans. God knows they play a physical game so we are really happy to have scored five tries on them because their defence is one of the things they are renowned for.

"I think we retained possession a lot better today than we did against South Africa and I think the number of phases we were able to put together finally broke down their defence and we had better numbers outside."

Woods said he was hoping to come out victorious on Sunday but he said there was at least one obstacle that had to be overcome.

"We just have two days of hard work to do at the bar first and that's what killed us last year!" he said.

The match marked the retirement from playing in the Classic for the USA number eight Frank Kennedy.

"I have been here 14 years and I think this is my last time playing," the big man said with the hint of a tear in his eye. "It's time for someone else to do it for a while.

"But I love this place and I will be back."