Argentina coach Daniel Hourcade says his side will be giving it their all against the Springboks in Friday's third-place play-off at London's Olympic Stadium.

While his South African counterpart, Heyneke Meyer, described the game as 'meaningless', Hourcade insisted the Pumas had put the semi-final defeat to Australia behind them and were focused on turning over the Boks in a 'must win'.

'We can’t worry too much about the semi-final anymore because we have a very big game to come, our goal is to finish in the top three, so we will be giving our all against a very good team,' he said. 'We want to finish third, which has always been our minimum requirement at this World Cup. Our pre-tournament goal was always to make the final or at the least, finish third. Nothing has changed. And it would be great to get another victory against South Africa.'

Meanwhile, Los Pumas captain Agustín Creevy was perplexed by Meyer's outlook towards the third-place play-off.

'I am not sure why they would say that. Surely it's better to finish third than it is to come fourth,' Creevy argued. 'I believe our best game is still to come. It will be on Friday. We will be going all out to beat the Boks.'

Argentina claimed a first-ever Test victory over South Africa when they won 37-25 in Durban earlier this year.

Photo: Steve Haag/Gallo Images