Argentina v Australia: Five takeaways as ’emphatic’ Los Pumas ‘eviscerate’ Wallabies in Santa Fe’s record win
Argentina players after scoring a try against the Wallabies.
Following Argentina’s complete 67-27 dismantling of the Wallabies, here are our five takeaways from Santa Fe.
The Top Line
An absolutely remarkable round four clash between Australia and Argentina saw one of the biggest turnarounds in Test rugby history as the Wallabies blew a 17-point lead as their hosts scored a remarkable 64 points in 48 minutes of thrilling and ambitious rugby.
Turning around at half-time 17-20 ahead, as Los Pumas scored in the last moments of the first half, the Wallabies simply fell apart thereafter, conceding the biggest defeat and most points ever in their proud rugby history.
Nine tries from Mateo Carreras, Julian Montoya, Juan Martin Gonzalez, Pablo Matera, Joaquin Oviedo (2) Juan Mallia (2) and Lucio Cinti simply blew the hapless Aussies away, as they could only manage three in reply, from Carlo Tizzano, Andrew Kellaway and Tate McDermott.
30 missed tackles from Australia allowed Los Pumas to make 14 clean breaks, running over 780 metres with ball in hand, as the offloading Argentinians made hay in the Santa Fe sunshine.
Argentina Grow
This was a game where Los Pumas started slowly, conceding handling error after error in their backline as the Wallaby defence pressured and the hosts perhaps were a little ambitious in forcing that final pass. But grow they did and their final chapter was a devastating display of power and running rugby that simply blew the Wallabies back over the Pacific Ocean and beyond.
Argentina’s backline were also adapting to playing with a left-footed fly half – something many might not think is a big deal, but to the more informed watchers, the nuances of kicking angles, stepping directions and so on change according to the skills and orientation of the fly-half. However, as the game progressed Tomas Albornoz really came into his own, running some lovely plays with waves of attackers coming onto his passes around the corner as his speed and soft hands brought his speedsters and back-row into the game, not to mention his last gasp tackle on Marika Koroibete. In all Argentina executed 17 offloads, 11 of which resulted in line breaks, as they grew into their offloading game.
That back-row – soundly beaten on the floor in the wet by the Wallabies last weekend, put in an almighty performance, as both Pablo Matera, huge with ball in hand, and the exquisitely skilful Juan Martin Gonzalez both crossed over for short-range efforts. In fact, all three starters might have scored but for a customary moment of madness from Tomas Lavannini, adjudicated to have blocked a tackler before the massive frame of Marcos Kremer smashed over the line.
With replacement Joaquin Oviedo also slotting two five-pointers, one as impudent as you like as he sold an outrageous dummy to stand up three Wallaby defenders, the collective back row of Los Pumas couldn’t have answered their critics more emphatically. However the last word had to go to the hosts, and Carreras and Mallia combined twice in two minutes to deliver double carbon copies of Andrew Kellaway’s try down the tramlines to see Mallia grab a brace and Los Pumas to a well-deserved win.
Donaldson Shines
Former Wallaby great and Planet Rugby columnist David Campese has spent most of this season telling anyone prepared to listen that Ben Donaldson is the future of the ten shirt in Australia and, judging from today’s performance, Campo isn’t far from the truth as Donaldson was the one crumb of comfort for Joe Schmidt in the defeat at Santa Fe.
Despite the loss, most of which happened after he’d been subbed off, Donaldson was outstanding in energising the Wallaby attack in the first half, looping around the back of his runners to create the extra man, kicking intelligent contestables and playing heads up decision-based rugby out of the highest drawer.
His intelligence and ability to react to what’s in front of him couldn’t be more fully illustrated in the way he ignited the move for Australia’s second try for Kellaway. Faced with a tight Puma defence rushing up on the openside, he switched the playback to the short side, took his defender with him and popped a wonderful pass to allow Kellaway and Jorgenson to interplay down the touchline, creating a three-on-two which allowed the Wallaby full back to slide in under the posts.
Donaldson might not be the finished article quite yet, but on the evidence of his performance on Saturday, he has that crucial ability to react to what is developing in front of him on the field of play. His removal from the pitch at halftime was a quite remarkable call from Joe Schmidt and it’s no coincidence that the moment he left, the Wallabies’ exit and territorial strategy completely fell apart.
Wallaby Woes
In a game that started so promisingly for the Wallabies, who led 20-17 at half-time and 20-3 at 30 minutes, the unravelling of this match was almost unfathomable. To watch it unravel to a 60-point thrashing was concerning in extreme.
What happened? Well, the moment Taniela Tupou went off for Australia, the Wallaby scrum failed to gain any form of dominance. Los Pumas scrum gave them the platform they needed to launch their newfound ambition. Secondly, Argentina started to make their passes stick. For 30 minutes they appeared to drop every other ball, although it was clear that they were trying to play a fast, soft hands offloading game. Once the passing started to calibrate itself, so the floodgates opened; Cinti and Chocobares were magical in midfield; the back three, Mallia and both Carreras were magnificent and, as they gelled with their brilliant young fly-half.
With Kremer, Gonzalez and Matera winning every contact, every collision, and every turnover, the tide changed remarkably. It was a complete second-half performance by Argentina, one of the finest in their rugby history, and one that perhaps heralded a new champion at fly-half in Tomas Albornoz.
Australia have nothing to take from this game other than the showing of Donaldson in the first half, and perhaps Tate McDermott in the second. For Joe Schmidt, it’s back to the drawing board, but if he’s learned anything from today, he’ll know he has to play both McDermott and Donaldson, preferably together.
Records Broken
This match saw two benchmark moments for two of the best front rowers rugby has seen in recent years.
Firstly, we saw Los Pumas skipper Julian Montoya come onto the pitch with his young daughter in his arms to celebrate 100 test caps. His partnership with Agustin Creevy, who retired last week, has seen some 12 years of world-class excellence from the Argentinian number two shirt as these two champion hookers have both been outstanding for their country.
It was somewhat fitting that Montoya crossed for his 12th test try – a typically short-range affair after some wonderful work by Matera with ball in hand.
For the Wallabies, it was former captain and loosehead prop James Slipper who walked on to the crowd’s acknowledgement as he equalled George Gregan’s overall cap record for Australia as he notched up his 139th cap. The former Queenslander, now Brumby made his test debut back in 2010 against England in Perth. There’s no more popular player in the Wallaby squad, and on Saturday the prop deservedly became the sixth most capped player in rugby history, but his day wasn’t one to celebrate as he conceded a number of penalties under pressure as Argentina’s scrum mounted an impressive comeback as the game progressed.
But the final record is the most staggering of all; this was Australia’s biggest-ever defeat in test rugby history. 64 points in 48 minutes from Los Pumas simply eviscerated their visitors in one of the finest halves of rugby ever delivered from the men in white and blue, giving their skipper Montoya the biggest celebration of his century imaginable.
READ MORE: Australia butcher 17-point lead as Julian Montoya’s milestone inspires Argentina to record win