South Africa comes second despite the victory

New Zealand were crowned the Rugby Championship for the eighth time on Saturday, after the rivals South Africa were unable to secure much needed points to hand them championship despite their convincing 38 - 21 Victory over Argentina, in Durban.

The Springboks needed to score at least 39 points and a victory, to wrestle the trophy away from the leading All Blacks who finished the tournament in the first place after beating Australia 40 - 10, early Saturday.

New Zealand have regularly won the Championship with several matches to spare, but this season went down to the wire as the champions were caught by surprise and humbled by Argentina at home for the first time.

The World Cup champions finished their Southern hemisphere season in the second place with 18 points ahead of Australia (10 points) and Argentina (9 points).

SA Captain Siya Kolisi says Boks were close enough to their goal.

"We never take a win for granted," said Kolisi.

"It's always an honour to get a win against a team like Argentina. We had a plan and we got near our goal.

"It was going well (when leading 17-0) and we wanted to score again but they scored just before half-time and that set us back a little bit.

"They started well in the second half and then our discipline let us down at times and we had two yellow cards.

"The biggest thing (so far) from this season was that even in the games we lost we created so many chances. Our game plan is working but we just don't take the opportunities."