All Blacks v Argentina: Five takeaways as ‘possessed’ Los Pumas ‘pummel’ Scott Robertson’s men in a famous win
Our five takeaways from the All Blacks loss to Argentina in the Rugby Championship.
Following Argentina’s shock 38-30 win over the All Blacks in the Rugby Championship, here are our five takeaways from the game.
The top line
Los Pumas delivered one of the finest performances in their history as they came back from an indisciplined first-half showing to batter and brawl their way to a famous win in Wellington.
It was no fluke; four tries played three as Lucio Cinti, Mateo Carreras, Franco Molina and 39-year-old Agustin Creevy all crossed for the visitors, with Sam Darry on debut, Anton Lienert-Brown and Mark Tele’a replying for the All Blacks.
It was a brutal performance at the breakdown and collision by Argentina who smashed the rucks like men possessed, clearing out with huge power and using their immense back-row to pummel their way down the middle of the pitch.
After the first half, in which the visitors haemorrhaged 11 penalties, one might have thought that their own indiscipline was going to ruin the great work by their forwards in contact, but no; a real tightening up on their breakdown work saw only three transgressions in the second period as the big South American pack achieved dominance against the mighty All Blacks, a rare feat indeed.
It was a monumental performance, the extra points at the end even robbing Scott Robertson’s men of a losing bonus-point, and a display from Los Pumas that’s thrown the 2024 Rugby Championship wide open.
Back-row warriors
There’s many great judges in the game that believe that the current Argentina loose trio of Juan Martin Gonzalez, Pablo Matera and Marcos Kremer are as good as any in the world right now and, on today’s showing, there’s little doubt that they’re right.
Kremer was a brick wall in the centre of the midfield defence; his 130kg hammering into anything in black as he made the gainline his own. He only needed a bullfighter’s red muleta to complete the cliché as he drew attackers into his grasp and flattened them at the point of contact, hitting 18 monster tackles.
Alongside Kremer Argentina had the artist Gonzalez, adding nuance and skill in the air, dominating his team’s lineout throws and running magnificent lines in support of his impressive centres and back three. And then you had Matera – leading his charges with a mighty example. He put in one of the greatest performances of his distinguished Test career as he personified the warrior spirit and accepted every challenge that the All Blacks threw at him. Two turnovers, 14 thundering carries and some massive hits around the side of the ruck saw him drive his team home through sheer bloodyminded example.
Argentina put in one of their finest performances in their history, but there’s little doubt their incredible back-row put in THE performance of their collective partnership; in short, they were immense.
All Blacks lack physicality
With a number of both enforced and deliberate changes in the back five of New Zealand, they were a powderpuff facsimile of the usual standards we expect from the All Blacks around contact and the gainline.
With the exception of Dalton Papali’i who competed brilliantly on the floor, grabbing a couple of crucial turnovers in the face of the Argentinian onslaught, Robertson will be extremely disappointed at the lack of power in the contact, the absence of players taking responsibility for clearing out and the way that his players lost the initial collision time and time again down the middle of the park.
The fact that no scrums took place until the 60th minute also robbed the All Blacks of a clear area of superiority. There’s no doubt that when their starting props were on that they got a couple of nudges on two scrums that did complete, however since the arrival of Ethan de Groot and Tyrel Lomax, New Zealand have used their set-piece as a real platform for attack and without scrums for threequarters of the match they struggled for front foot momentum.
It was an irony that when their replacements came on, Los Pumas upped their game at scrum time and the final try, courtesy of Creevy, his fourth versus the All Blacks, came as a direct result of winning a scrum and going again under the hosts’ posts.
On the bright side
It wasn’t all gloom and doom for the All Blacks. They did magnificently well in the aerial battle in the first half, with Tele’a controlling the drop zone and demonstrating once more his ability to sidestep defenders and get through the primary defence in severe traffic.
Their lineout stole a number of balls off the Argentinian throw, but the fact they were using two locks to lift Ardie Savea to challenge a lot of the time removed any form of maul power once they’d won the ball, making it relatively easy for Argentina to defend one out runners from the lineout win.
At 13, Lienert-Brown, a player that flies under the radar for many, put in a really impressive display of simple and intelligent centre play, making a memorable break running 35 metres down the middle in the first half, and scampering over shortly afterwards for a well-taken try.
The other thing that will please Robertson was the exit work of Damian McKenzie, as the fly-half hit some raking touch finders to get out of his own half on a number of occasions.
But the All Blacks are pragmatists; they will realise that their forwards were severely beaten up on the gainline in this match and the coaches will think hard about the balance of skill and running over pure grunt in their back five for next week’s encounter as they host Los Pumas at Eden Park in Round Two.
The old warhorses
The final words have to go to the Argentinian bench, where the old warhorses Creevy and Tomas Lavanini did their best to give their team a South American version of the Bomb Squad.
Creevy had an absolutely immense 16 minutes on the pitch, grabbing two turnovers, sorting the accuracy of the lineout out and thundering over from close range for the killer blow. 109 Test matches of intellect came onto the pitch with him, and his ability to take the ball into contact and retain possession to maintain pressure and territory in the last ten minutes was absolutely crucial for his team.
Alongside Creevy, everyone’s favourite pantomime villain Lavanini also played his part, wrapping the ball in his vast hands and crashing it up in short, powerful collisions to run down the clock and to make sure that New Zealand had no chance of getting their mitts on another turnover chance.
This was Argentina’s moment – a perfect storm where the experience of that brilliant back-row set the agenda and the super-subs came on and signed the deal off in the closing minutes in a victory that was much deserved and one that will thrill the neutrals of the rugby world.
READ MORE: Argentina claim shock victory over All Blacks as Scott Robertson left with plenty to ponder
