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It was ugly, but the All Blacks continued their undefeated run in the Rugby Championship with a plucky 36-10 win over a spirited Argentinian side.
The game started slowly for both sides, handling errors and ill-discipline the order of the first 10 minutes. That saw Beauden Barrett and then Nicolas Sanchez trade penalties to leave the score at 3-3.
The first try eventually came in the form of Kieran Read, who was the last pass beneficiary of a nice bust from Damian Mckenzie and Waisake Naholo. Barrett’s kick faded to the left, and after 13 minutes, the All Blacks had the five-point advantage.
They were the next to score, too, when, after repeated scrum infringements close to the Pumas line, Mckenzie tapped quickly off a penalty and dove under two Argentinian forwards to score. At 15-3, the Argentinians were ruing their early absence of discipline at the breakdown and in the defensive line.
They would’ve been frustrated even further when, not three minutes later, Barrett slipped past a weak tackle in the midfield, and threw a delightful no-look flick pass to Waisake Naholo who bumped off Mattias Moroni to score under the posts. At this stage it was 22-3, and the All Blacks were going at better than a point a minute.
It went from bad to worse for Agustin Creevy and his side two minutes later when Tomas Lavanini was yellow carded for a no-arm tackle on Sonny Bill Williams.
Off Barrett’s kick, the All Blacks built considerable territorial pressure, and eventually made full advantage of the numerical mismatch, Barrett flicking between his legs for Mckenzie who found Read inside for his second of the night.
The remainder of the first half was a bit of a lull as both sides dropped a number of balls, and teams swapped penalties without a lot of success. That was until the 37th minute when Sonny Bill Williams was pinged for hands in the ruck.
Off the resulting kick for touch, the All Blacks collapsed two mauls in a row – the second resulting in Matt Todd being sin-binned for 10 minutes.
The second half started in a similar vein to the first. The Argentinians gaining early possession and territory, but time and time again, their rolling maul was disrupted and they couldn’t land the killer blow. Romano’s tackle on Motera was spectacular on one such occasion.
When the Kiwis did clear their line, it only resulted in a Kieran Read yellow card for a high tackle on Matias Orlando. Off the resulting kick to the corner, the maul was again, disrupted, and again, the Pumas knocked on and couldn’t capitalise.
The Kiwis were out on their feet, but as the clock rolled into its 55th minute, the scores were unchanged from the break 15 minutes earlier.
Something had to give, and eventually the veteran Juan Manuel Leguizamon hustled over from close range to score in the 56th minute. Sanchez’ kick was spot on, and the margin was back to 19 points.
It was a tight tussle from there, with the Pumas side playing with the passion and tenacity rugby fans globally have come to expect from them at home.
The Kiwis could’ve shut them totally out of the game, but for a few basic errors close to the line, not least of them a denied try after a Naholo forward pass in the 61st minute.
Whilst all this was happening, the Kiwis continued to smash the Pumas at scrum time, and repeated infringements resulted in a yellow card to Ramiro Herrera in the 70th minute – the fourth of the game.
Off the resulting penalty and lineout, again Steve Hansen would’ve been spitting chips, this time Ioane spilling his lollies close to the line.
The last 10 minutes, it has to be said, was decidedly average. There were more scrum resets, soft penalties and knock-ons than anything else, and both sides were guilty of forcing their hand in the pursuit of a miracle offload or half line break.
David Havili ended an otherwise dour second half on a positive note, the debutant finishing a nice 8, 9, 15 move after the siren to put a full stop on a very inconsistent performance from the number one team in the world.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.