Argentina v All Blacks: Five takeaways as ‘monumental’ Pablo Matera and Los Pumas ‘bossed’ New Zealand
Argentina celebrate historic win over All Blacks.
Following an historic 29-23 win for Argentina over the All Blacks, here’s our five takeaways from the Rugby Championship fixture in Buenos Aires on Saturday.
The top line
Argentina created history in Buenos Aries as they finally saw off the mighty All Blacks on home soil in a match that started slowly but built up to an absolute crackerjack.
New Zealand will rue their own indiscipline – three yellow cards is almost unheard of for a side as savvy and streetwise as they are, but don’t denude the immense pressure from Los Pumas that forced those errors.
Argentina’s tries came courtesy of Juan Martin Gonzalez and the superb Gonzalo Garcia, who put his poor performance last weekend behind him, providing his backs with pacy service and some really intelligent running from the base.
New Zealand’s scores were delivered by Billy Proctor, Fletcher Newell and Samisoni Taukei’aho, but although they scored one more, poor discipline allowed Santi Carreras to nail four key penalties, to go with the pair scored by his colleagues, Juan Cruz Mallia and Tomas Albornoz.
The result was no flattery of the Puma performance; to a man they raised their pace and physicality to levels that far exceeded their flaky effort of a week ago and there’s little doubt they were worthy winners of an intense and brutal Test match.
Los Pumas awake
Talk about the difference a week makes!
Argentina, sleepy and sluggish for 40 minutes in Cordoba sprung out of the traps to deliver a much more convincing performance in every aspect.
At the heart of everything was their magnificent back-row, and with Gonzalez starting, they somehow looked a lot more balanced as the Saracen brought his incredible athleticism to their ranks. Gonzalez was brilliant in the way he took his first try, but given the numerical mismatch at the time, he might well rue his decision to go over the top and down close to the line, a moment that would have seen Argentina go seven up on the stoke of half-time.
With the monumental Pablo Matera simply doing Matera things – power, directness and growl personified, the whole pack grew into the match, showing wonderful touches with ball in hand, and importantly, a far more direct approach through contact than we’d seen a week ago. Add in the impact of the brilliant Guido Petti and the huge, brooding wrecking ball Marcos Kremer and there’s little doubt that the Argentinian back five had a huge influence on the result of this match.
There’s a growing feeling within the game that Argentina are truly growing into a world class side – packed with gas at the back and power up front they looked a changed side to the stuttering and fumbling effort that we saw in Round One and it will be intriguing to see how they progress in this year’s Rugby Championship.
10 minutes of mayhem
The period leading up to half-time was mayhem personified and it looked as if Argentina had left their chances out on the pitch as the teams walked in for the break.
With both teams missing key half-backs – Cortez Ratima leaving the field with a bruised sternum courtesy of Julian Montoya’s knee, and Albornoz’s hand losing an argument with his teammate Franco Molina’s boot, both sides were adjusting to new personnel.
Then, for New Zealand to lose two to the sin-bin in quick succession gave Argentina the rugby equivalent of a 10 minute open goal, but the scramble defence of the All Blacks needed to be seen to believed as the hosts threw everything at them to get some sort of lead into the half-time break.
At the centre of that scramble were two magical moments from Beauden Barrett, his tackling efforts keeping the Los Pumas wings shut out from the try line as they tried everything in their power to get around the black defensive wall.
But right at the death, another piece of mayhem saw Sevu Reece get the third yellow of the evening, as he received his marching orders for a cynical deliberate knock on, leaving Carreas the opportunity to close the game out with a pinpoint penalty.
Backline depth
To lose a player of Albornoz’s quality early in the first half would have killed off many teams. But when the world class 10 trotted off, Santi Carreras, a seasoned Premiership and Test fly-half, simply added a new dimension of pace into the Puma backline.
His partnership with Garcia was one formed around speed – speed of pass and speed of decision, getting the All Black defence moving laterally across the pitch and leaving gaps for others to find.
The main benefactor of those gaps was the powerful frame of Santi Chocobares, as the Toulouse centre hammered 12 carries, direct and fast, into the heart of the All Black defence, making some 68 post contact metres in a crucial effort for his team.
On the wing, Bautista Delguy had an absolute stormer, making three key breaks but dominating the airways as he came away with four clean catches in the aerial battle.
It was breathless stuff, high tempo rugby that sometimes saw them overplay and lose the ball in contact, but accurate enough to keep New Zealand defending for their lives against the waves of back row and midfield runners hammering into collision off the intellect of their half-backs.
The game in numbers
Let’s just talk Matera for one moment. 18 carries, 61 post contact metres; two turnovers, and four hugely dominant tackles rounded off an absolutely monumental display from the 114 capped Test flank. He even made a try off the base for Garcia, proving that when Pablo fires, so does Los Pumas as he delivered one of the finest 80 minutes of his distinguished career.
However, the defensive numbers from New Zealand tell their own tale; the All Blacks made a whopping 189 tackles, but missed a further 40, leaving them with a lamentable and unacceptable 81% success rate from their efforts.
The sheer number of attempts they made – 229 – tells everything you need to know about the course of the match and the manner with which Argentina took the game to them.
In terms of carries and metres made, the discrepancies continue; Argentina made 388m post contact with six line breaks, one of the highest numbers ever recorded in a Test match and a testament to their directness and power. Contrast that with a meagre return of 134m post contact and one line break from New Zealand and it’s clear to see who bossed this match.
READ MORE: Argentina claim historic win over All Blacks that blows Rugby Championship wide open