All Blacks star reflects on ‘unusual’ occurrence in defeat to Argentina

After starting their opening Rugby Championship campaign with a shock loss against Argentina, New Zealand will be determined to right the wrongs from that game when the two sides meet again at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday.

The All Blacks suffered a 38-30 defeat to Los Pumas at SKY Stadium in Wellington on Saturday and that venue has not been a happy hunting ground for the home side in recent years.

The men in black have now won in Wellington just once in their past seven Tests and are winless at that venue in their last five matches.

All Blacks keen to bounce back

All Blacks front-row Ofa Tu’ungafasi admitted that a period of soul-searching from the team’s players and coaching staff followed their unexpected loss and they are eager to bounce back in their rematch this weekend.

“Obviously, a loss is never taken easily in this environment,” he said. “And over the weekend, we spoke about looking inwards individually, looking in the mirror, what can we do better as a player?

“And that was the same message for the management, what they can do better. And I think coming into this week, there’s certainly a little edge in the team.

“Preparing and how we’re going to respond to the result on the weekend. I saw something (captain) Ardie (Savea) said in the after-match press conference, the good thing is we’re playing them again this week, the same team.”

Saturday’s Test in Wellington will live on long in the memory for various reasons but a big talking point after the match was that the two packs had to wait until the 61st minute for the first scrum – something which is quite abnormal in any rugby game.

Tu’ungafasi and Fletcher Newell came on as replacements props in the 58th minute of that game which meant the starting front-rowers Ethan De Groot and Tyrel Lomax did not participate in any scrums.

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“Obviously I certainly wasn’t prepared for no scrum for the full first half,” Tu’ungafasi said.

“I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that in my time here or ever. It was certainly unusual, but I could tell that the two boys that started, or the front-row that started, were hoping to have one scrum before they came off.

“It was unusual, but I think we’re just going to run around in the backs this week at training.

“Shorten our scrum sessions! But yeah, I don’t think we’ll see that again this week or for a long time.”

The 32-year-old said being highly motivated is normal in the All Blacks camp, although it will be for a different reason when they face Los Pumas again on Saturday.

“There’s always edge in this environment,” added Tu’ungafasi. “Boys wanting to be better, obviously wanting to have a crack, taking opportunities.

‘Kind of a different edge’

“But obviously, after a loss, there’s kind of a different edge. Like I said before, it’s more, ‘what can I do better?’ And the whole squad felt it as well. The boys that are not playing are doing the same thing.

“I think their mindset was, ‘what could we have done better to prepare the boys for that game?’ And then I think it’ll be the same this week. Who knows what my role is for this week. But if I don’t get an opportunity to put the jersey on this week, that’s going to be my mindset.

“What can I do to get the boys into the best place possible so they can go out there Saturday and get the job done sort of thing.”

READ MORE: All Blacks coach identifies where it all went wrong against Argentina