All Blacks lock Luke Romano is expecting another physical Test match against Argentina when the two teams line up in Saturday's Rugby Championship clash at La Plata.
New Zealand defeated the Pumas 21-5 in wet Wellington earlier this month and another win at the 35,000-seat Estadio Ciudad de La Plata will give them an unassailable lead in the new-look southern hemisphere competition.
However, 26-year-old Romano has not forgotten his first meeting with the Pumas at Westpac Stadium where he was on the receiving end of some big hits from the tournament newcomers.
Argentina led New Zealand at Westpac Stadium through a try from veteran prop Rodrigo Roncero and were only four points behind entering the closing stages before two tries gave the world champions a flattering victory margin.
Not many All Blacks stood out in that match, but the Crusaders lock - who has surprising pace - proved to be an extremely important cog in Steve Hansen's machine.
"I'm still finding my feet at this level and not having played them before I wasn't too sure about how they would defend or what sort of techniques they like to employ so I'm obviously a lot better off going into this match after playing them once before," he said.
"There were a few times when I ended up on my back.
"I think what makes them hard is that they're not big, big men like the South Africans, but they hit just as hard. After the last game in Wellington, I was pretty sore. It took me two or three days to recover from that."
This weekend's return match won't be any different as far as physicality is concerned, and Romano is bracing himself for another forward onslaught - especially at scrum time.
"They scrummage very differently," he said.
"The Springboks are a lot like us, they like to get the hit and keep chasing whereas the Argentines, if they miss the hit, they're very good at shifting their feet and loading again so you've got to be careful of that.
"And they stay in the fight for the whole scrum.
"We've had it before where if you get on top of a team, their scrum after maybe two or three seconds the battle is over but the Argentines, even if they're going backwards, if you take the foot off the accelerator they will just come back and we'll end up going backwards."
The All Blacks have won five Tests and drawn one in Buenos Aires since first visiting Argentina in 1985 with a 36-6 triumph 21 years ago the only one-sided encounter. And Romano is under no illusions of the task facing him and his team.
"It's a big ask to win over here," said Romano.
"The previous All Blacks teams who have been here haven't won by a lot.
"The Argentines, they'll be really fizzing because they've come close to beating Australia and drew with South Africa here. They'll be trying to get their first win of the Championship. It's a big test."
Comments
ABlack says...
Romano is good value
Posted 10:09 28th September 2012