After four nights of scintillating action at the World Rugby Classic, a bruising showdown is expected when Classic Springboks and Argentina Legends meet tonight (9pm) at the National Sports Centre to decide the winner.

South Africa, who defeated Canada 45-10 last year to clinch their seventh title, again hold the aces. Dick Muir’s side beat Classic Eagles 44-3 before subduing Classic Lions 31-14, with those wins both including a bonus point.

Argentina defeated Italian Classic XV 12-0 and followed that up with a 21-13 triumph over Classic Canada. As they failed to secure any bonus points in those victories, the Argentinians are two points behind South Africa with victory the only way they can land a seventh title.

As expected at this stage of the tournament, most of the teams are carrying injuries, with the only option available being recruiting players from Bermuda.

South Africa, who are down to 21 players due with Derick Minnie not making the trip and Martin Ferreira picking up a biceps injury, are looking to exploit the competition’s regulations to enlist players from teams they have already played against.

“It’s important that we recover well,” Muir told The Royal Gazette.

“We've just got to sort out one or two little things. Our line-outs didn’t operate very well against the Lions, but we did some of the basics well.”

Charles Mayeza has been a revelation for the Springboks. Playing at the Classic for the first time, the 35-year-old has been a perfect replacement for Rosko Specman.

On Sunday, Mayeza marked his debut with a hat-trick of tries against the United States in wet conditions not suitable for running rugby. On Wednesday, he grabbed a brace to become the tournament’s leading tryscorer with five.

Just like other backline players, Mayeza has benefited from the big hits put in by the likes of Josh Strauss and Bernard Le Roux.

Argentina captain Federico Castilla has described their match against South Africa as a war.

“It’s going to be a very hard game,” he said.

“South Africa are a very good team and last year they won the cup. They’re a hard team to play against as they have very big players.

“It’s going to be a war playing against them and that is why we rested our key players for the sevens on Wednesday. We are going all out for victory. If we do that, we know that we will win the cup.”

Another team struggling with injuries is the Lions. Following their loss to the Boks, Dave Attwood, the Lions team leader, sent out an appeal to local players who might be keen for a run-out against Italy at 7.30pm.

“We’re going to have to do a lot of injury assessment, then we might be on a recruitment drive,” Attwood said.

“If any Bermudian lads fancy a game on Friday, we’re very much on the lookout for players. We could do with some backs as we’ve got about three walking backs at the minute.”

A repeat of the sevens final kicks off the last night when Classic Canada collide with Classic Eagles at 6pm. Nicklas Boyer, who captained the Americans to a 26-12 triumph in the sevens final, is looking to translate that to the longer version of the game.

“Winning the sevens was a big boost for us, but the job’s not done,” Boyer said.

“I think we laid down a marker because that was mostly our back line and then our loose forwards out there.

“What we’re telling our tight forwards is that we can do this. We need you boys to step up as well and do what we just did.

“We have to build good on the great result. We’re going for a repeat win and to walk away with a good feeling.”

Meanwhile, World Rugby Classic organisers have cancelled the Hurricane Melissa Relief efforts fundraiser because of low numbers.

“Unfortunately, we are unable to go ahead with this fundraiser as we’ve had only two people reach out for tickets,” the officials said.

“It’s really disappointing, but Fourways Catering needed to know for the food preparation on Thursday and we clearly weren’t getting the uptake we expected.”