It seems a little odd that in a three-country competition a team can win the trophy with two wins and two losses while the team in second finishes has two wins, one loss and a draw.
As we all know, New Zealand defeated Argentina 38-0 on Saturday night and, with the bonus point, are guaranteed the Tri Nations trophy. I am of course discounting the possibility that Australia and Argentina will play out another draw. The odds are strongly against that.
The odds against either team winning the trophy are pretty high too. New Zealand now has 11 points – eight from two wins and three bonus points – with a points difference of 64. Argentina, which has six points and a points difference of -28, will have to defeat Australia by a margin of 93 points to win the trophy. In Australia’s case, as they have six points and a points difference of -36, that margin of victory against Argentina will have to be 101 points.
Somehow, I can’t see either option playing out.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
As an aside, when Michael Cheika left the Wallabies coaching role in 2019 he said he would never coach against his home country. Yet he has been helping out Pumas coach Mario Ledesma. There’s one difference in his attire when Australia is playing Argentina: he does not wear the official coach colours as Ledesma does. He wears civvies. Yet on Saturday night, when the Pumas took on the All Blacks, he was in official Argentine garb. Somewhat silly, one would think.
But to the game now, and New Zealand managed to curb a lot of their bad habits and respect the ball when they got it. They stayed in possession for long periods, making the Argentines tackle and tackle and tackle. By the end of the first half they did not have much to show in the way of points, but they had ensured that the Pumas had effected 107 tackles to the 21 they had had to pull off.
Even if the game had been played in cool weather, that number of tackles in 40 minutes would have worn down any side. Add to that the fact that this was a side playing its third game on consecutive weekends – when a team is that tired they tend to make mistakes they never would on another day.
The last three All Blacks tries were conceded by Argentina out of sheer weariness. A wayward pass from Santiago Carreras went to ground and substitute winger Will Jordan pounced on the ball and promptly turned on the afterburners. A couple of minutes later Carreras was again at fault as he threw a pass that Jordan this time intercepted and again raced through to score.
The last try, by Patrick Tuipulotu, saw the burly lock charge through a gap as big as the Khyber Pass and close out the game. Until that point, Argentine’s line defence had been pretty good.
Argentina were poorly served by their star Nicolas Sanchez. Agreed, the man must have been somewhat tired after scoring all the 40 points that his team has recorded in their first two games, but even then he was terrible on the day. What kicking he did was poorly judged, and when he was substituted in the second half it was a clear indication Argentina had given up any hopes of overhauling what was then a 17-point deficit.
The Pumas badly missed the injured Thomas Cubelli. His replacement at scrumhalf, Felipe Ezcurra, was not even half as good, and with Sanchez also kicking poorly Ezcurra needed to be much better when he put boot to ball.
Their scrum, a strong point in the game where they beat the All Blacks, was monstered by New Zealand on more than occasion. Their lineout was also shaky.
(Photo by Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
New Zealand were primed to avoid ill-discipline, not to lose patience and to keep possession through endless recycling until something gave. They followed that plan for most of the 86 minutes of the game, but there was the occasional lapse when either Beauden Barrett or else Richie Mo’unga would send the ball back to Argentina with aimless kicks.
There were also flashes of the old arrogance – when Tyrel Lomax took a swing at Lucio Sordoni as he tried to clean out a breakdown and earned a yellow card. Lomax was lucky that Sordoni was on the ground, else he would surely have been given a red instead.
Akira Ioane was the standout player for New Zealand. Whether it was pulling in the ball at lineout time, landing ferocious tackles on his opponents or using his tremendous strength to simply rip the ball out of an Argentine’s hands, Ioane excelled in every facet. He had previously had only about 25 minutes on the field – when he had to be substituted in the loss against Australia when Ofa Tu’ungafasi was red-carded so that another prop could be brought on.
For the record, this was the first time Argentina failed to score even a single point against New Zealand. The Kiwis could not have hoped for a better ending to what has been a strange year. No doubt they will watch with interest on 5 December when Australian take on Argentina. But as far as trophies go, the final Tri Nations game is of only academic interest.
One cannot end without mention of a classy gesture by the All Blacks to their opponents. Captain Sam Cane walked across the pitch before the haka and presented the Pumas with an All Blacks jersey which had the No. 10 and the lone word ‘Maradona’ written on the back in memory of Diego Armando Maradona, who died at the age of 60 during the week. A better tribute to that legend of the round-ball game I am yet to see.
P2R2
Roar Rookie
score tries....get bonus points...kick goals...zilch
P2R2
Roar Rookie
wake up...dreaming
Paulo
Roar Rookie
All fair points and I know where your coming from. And your right, knowing the rules beforehand doesn’t always make it easy. NZ cricket fans know all go well that pain - I mean really, a boundary count back?!? Interestingly though, that cricket World Cup had rules set up that favoured runs (obviously) but then ‘how you scored’ was more important than ‘wickets’. So it favoured positive play as opposed to losing. I know that’s not a great comparison, I only thought of it as I wrote the first part. But I think that’s the ideology behind the bonus point system. “Disarming your opponents weapons and maximising the value of your own.” Couldn’t agree more with that sentiment. I think the bonus point system does show an intrinsic higher value for tries than kicks, and without it you potentially devalue their worth. Without the bonus points, a win is the same as any other, but with them, a performance like the ABs put it, or the Aussies did in Perth last year, are rewarded more than a 2 pt win. And being that close and losing is recognised too. It’s not perfect, but it’s what we have.
Gloria
Roar Rookie
Yes, the rules were set. Doesn’t mean they are right or the best way to do it. If you want bonus points (I don’t), then loss-draw-win points of 0-3-6 works better so that the artificial bonus points of one point for a small loss and one point for ‘three tries’ are better balanced with the overall result. The value of how points are scored is already set by the value given, ie 5 for a try, 3 for a penalty, 2 for a conversion, three for a drop goal. Without ‘bonus’ points, the value of a win, a loss and a draw is ascertained only by the score in each game, using the established points per score method as defined by the laws of the game. To then impose some artificial and arbitrary ’bonus’ points scheme, effectively on top of the real points, a system which has the potential, as it has in this competition, to decide the winner, and elevate the value of ‘bonus’ points above real points, in search of a method to control how teams score their points, is downright silly, fake, superficial and shallow. This is test rugby and the Pumas (and England in the RWC) have clearly demonstrated the value of playing a hard defensive game where the strategy is to impose an impregnable barrier on the opposition’s ability to score. It is just as valid a strategy as any other, has provided two of the most memorable results in the last 2 years, results which have marketed the game far better than some fake ‘bonus’ points system, and is a demonstration of what true test rugby is all about: Disarming your opponents weapons and maximising the value of your own.
Shooter McGavin
Guest
Things learnt this year: Jordie Barrett is still not warranting a place in the starting side but keeps getting selected. Beauden Barrett and Richie Mounga need a better coach to develop their kicking games. The forwards with maybe the exception of Cane, Whitelock and Moody aren't consistent.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
It’s so bad they sprung these rules on everyone half way through the competition when it would put NZ on top. If only all teams knew the rules and had agreed to them beforehand... Essentially though, the rank of importance has been made -Wins > how you won > loses > how you lost. That’s the priority order based on the points system. I can appreciate some people would prefer - wins> loses> how you won/lost. But, it’s not, and all teams knew this.
haha i reckon there will be after 2 weeks in lockdown...
INT
Guest
Style counts... not just for the aesthetic and economic reasons but also to inspire the next gen. Certainly the upsets were good, the way in which they were won not so great. Both Argies and Wobblies were guilty of some very nasty, cheap and tactics in the games they won against the ABs. And the match they played against each other was atrocious. Hopefully the can manage at least 3 or 4 tries each in this last encounter and bring some respectability to their year.
smoothy
Roar Rookie
It does seem a bit of a sham. I think bonus points could be better served as one of those secondary, tie-breakers after match results/points differential. Also, I hope you made a bet on your call for the result?! I saw in another article - you called it, spot on! :laughing:
GoldenEye
Roar Rookie
I'd say the Wallabies & Pumas defeating the mighty All Blacks was pretty positive, especially for Rugby. I'll take a win over the All Blacks any way you can get it. As we've seen in all Rugby, wins create positivity among fans & losses create negativity. Just look at the fans reactions to the various results this year.
Tooly
Roar Rookie
The best team won !
INT
Guest
Of course the Wobblies or Argies can put all that positive rugby they been saving all year and make up the difference. Wouldn’t that be wonderful.
INT
Guest
NZ winning the silver is a fair result. Two absolute hidings, and two narrow losses (albeit in the face of some extremely negative rugby). And I guess that’s the point, the competition justify rewards positive, try scoring rugby.
Gloria
Roar Rookie
Your opening paragraph shows the inappropriateness of using bonus points to decide a winner. In SR and the RWC there are finals, in the case of the RWC, 7 games of finals, to decide the winner. Bonus points suck. Happy to go to head to head then head to head points difference, etc in the case of teams on the same points at the end. But this is just plain wrong.
fiwiboy7042
Roar Rookie
It's simple with the countback system. Score your points with tries and you're on your way to being rewarded. Score with just kicks and run the rapids. Big white rapids with orcs taking potshots at you! ????
Riccardo
Roar Rookie
Good piece. Thought both the big Barrett and Akira were very good in a an all-round display of forward dominance. Set-piece, especially the scrum, was on-point. Lomax was cleaning out and didn't need to swing that arm; lucky not to have got a red. Glad you touched on Jordan's fortuitous tries. They were well taken and finished but they and Big Patrick's tries were consolations from a very tired Los Pumas defense. For the majority of the game they defended galantly. To go to the sheds only 10 down after 40minutes testament to that effort. It was also good to see that the All Blacks halves were trying to combat that line-speed with some deft kicking and passing at the gain line. The aimless punts downtown simply trade possession and better teams will punish them. Better territorial kicking please. Los Pumas really do miss Cubelli supporting Sanchez, especially exiting. Hope he's fit for this weekend.
Bobby
Roar Rookie
NZ look to have won the silverware, but there is a few dents in the trophy (now).